Back in action

18. Training pt. 3 - Intermediate

Weapons.

That's what they were told they were going to be training with for the rest of the month. Weapons was the one thing the espies never focused on; they were fine with every thing else except weapons.

They could use gadgets perfectly fine, those were easy, but weapons? That was near impossible for them to use. Needless to say, the eight had trouble that month — more than they had in the duration of time they've spent on the island.

Their 'instructor' for this month was Natsu's very own brother; Zeref Dragneel. "Zeref!? What are you doing here?!" Was the first thing Natsu said when he saw is brother. "Ah, my little brother is here? I knew it was a good idea for me to take on the intermediates this month."

"You know each other?" Kinana asked natsu. This was the most shocked she and Elfman had seen him. To them, the eight of them looked so serious and they always seemed like they had their mind on something else. Since usually, they were thinking about their kids, not that the other two know.

"Zeref, what are you doing here?" Lucy asked. "I didn't know you wee a member of Fairy tail." Zeref smiled in response. "I've been a member for a while. Since about when you got married. I found out that you used to work for Sabertooth and that you then joined fairy tail, then retired. I became intrigued, and, somewhere along the way, I became a member."

Natsu was bewildered, ten years. He was a member for ten years, without the eight knowing. "Oh, how's my niece doing?" After saying that, Zeref noted that their expressions darkened when he mentioned tat. And it wasn't just Natsu and Lucy's exposions, the other sixs' expressions darkened as well.

"I see," the black haired male knew why they were here now. He knew t and wanted to help them.

"Weapons," Zeref got back on track, "its a skill that you need to master. One who can use any type of weapon at any time will be able to use anything as a weapon. It also makes one less vulnerable and helps one not become a burden."

He pressed a button on the wall and it opened up revealing a room full, top-to-bottom with all different types of weapons. "Swords, guns, bombs, bows. All of those are primary weapons that you are going to master. If you can master those basic weapons, you can use anything to substitue them."

He pointed in front of him to a light brown haired female. "You," he waited for her name. "Evergreen," 'evergreen' responded. "Evergreen, come and attack me." She obliged and picked up one of the guns. She loaded it up with three bullets and aimed it straight at zeref.

Right before she was about to shoot, Zeref picked up a random branch off of the ground and held it up. Right when she shot, Zeref used the branch and blocked it. Part of the branch broke off, but the majority of it was still in tact.

"See, even this branch can be used as a sword against a gun." Zeref explained and put the branch back down. "Damn Zeref, I never knew you were such a good teacher. If only you were like this when I was n school, maybe then I wouldn't have failed almost everything." Natsu remarked. "Yeah-yeah." He ignored Natsu's comment.

"Back to. The training, for the first week, you all are going to be learning how to use each of these weapons. During the second week, you're going to pick a weapon that suits you best and train with that for the next tow weeks. Okay?" He didn't leave any time for them to respond when he immediately said, "okay," and proceeded to hand out the weapons.

Levy ad Erza weighed the weapons and found a proper way that was comfortable for them to hold them. Natsu and Gajeel randomly picked up the first weapon they saw and sloppily took it and started attacking each other. Juvia and Lucy were trying to figure out the best weapon that would sit them first, without picking them up. Jellal and gray just watched as the others were doing this. Jellal was going to wait until they all cleared out, while Gray just didn't want to be near Natsu and Gajeel while they were holding weapons. Kinana and Elfman also watched and sweat dropped at the scene, used to it for some reason. Evergreen tried to boast about the way the held her weapon and the last tow members just stayed with the shadows, not making their presences' noticeable.

-

For the week they trained with the basics and by the second week, most of them already chose which weapon they wanted to use. Erza and Jellal wanted to use swords, Levy, Lucy and Kinana wanted to use a bow, Natsu, Gajeel and Gray wanted to use bombs to, "blow stuff us," according to Natsu. Finally, Juvia, Evergreen and the two other mysterious people decided to use guns.

By the time of the exam, the thirteen of them had pretty much mastered the weapon they chose.

"Alright, for this exam, the only thing you have to do is use your weapon to scratch me. It doesn't matter where, but if you can manage to harm me in any way, without me getting to you first, you pass." Zeref explained.

Natsu had a big grin on his face, rushing in head first towards Zeref. He dodged all the bombs Natsu sent his way and smiled. Unexpectedly, Gajeel and gray came bursting out of a tree and aided Natsu with more bombs. Zeref, having more trouble than before, could barley dodge anymore. The tips of his hair kept getting cut off and his guard was up the entire time. Once again, without him noticing, three arrows came shooting his way, perfectly aligning themselves with each other. Zeref barley noticed them and came a millisecond too late, his clothes teared a bit, but it didn't cut him. Three bullets few through th air, following the arrows to a T that one wouldn't notice that they were behind the arrows. When Zeref dodged the arrows, he wasn't expecting bullets to be hidden behind it. Right before they nicked him, he threw a stone and hit one of the people shooting.

"One out," he whispered. Two swords suddenly cam flying towards him. They came in a diagonal motion, barely making him able to move. When he looked around again, he noticed that all of them had teamed up, something he'd never seen before. While thinking this, he didn't notice that all of them were coming straight at him at full force. He was too late to realize when he noticed twelve small cuts making its way onto his body.

Smirking, he said: "Congratulations, the twelve of you pass, you're now advance level. And I must admit, this is the largest group I'e ever passed, this is going to be intersecting to watch." He snickered slightly at the end. "Oh, and Natsu, when you go to her, make sure you tell her uncle Zeref says hi." With that he walked away.

"One more month, we're almost there, just hold out a bit longer"