Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 16 - Lionesses

Lucy's POV

With everyone briefed, we all headed out towards Mando Forest. Luckily, we didn't have to take a vehicle to get there. As we were walking, I decided to make small talk with Gray. "So, how do you know Lyon, Gray?" I asked as I walked beside him. "We go way back" he replied. "We used to train under the same master when we were kids" Lyon added as he joined our conversation. "Ah, so childhood friends" I said in understanding. "Something like that" Lyon replied before speeding up to walk with Sherry.

Numerous growls stopped our group in our tracks. Appeared from the shadows, a pride of twenty lionesses with vibrant glowing purple eyes surrounded our group. "It's an ambush!" Hibiki shouted and we all immediately stood in a circle, back to back. 'This must be one of Hydra Heads' magic' I thought as I eyed each lioness in front of me.

One of the lionesses in front of Natsu leapt towards him and everyone split up to dodge the lioness' claws. As soon as that one lioness attacked, all the others leapt to attack us as well. I stepped to the side as one leapt at me but before I could properly regain my footing, another leapt at me. Before the lioness claws could reach me, Natsu stepped in front of me and punched the lioness away with black flames dancing around his fist. "Thanks Natsu" I said and he growled black in a response which I took as a 'you're welcome'.

"Try to stay together! They're trying to split us up!" Erza shouted but a second later Ichiya ran deeper into the forest followed by a lioness. Natsu rolled his eyes at what Ichiya did. "I'll go help Lord Ichiya" Jura said before running off after Ichiya. Two lionesses followed behind him. The rest of us stayed behind and continued to dodge the lionesses' attacks while trying to stay together. The attacks were so overwhelming that the only ones who could use their magic were the Dragon Slayers with our Iron Fist attacks. "How are we supposed to cast our magic when these lionesses aren't giving us time to cast them?" Lyon asked as he dodged another lioness. Suddenly an idea popped into my head but I knew I was going to need some help.

"I've got an idea. Natsu, I need you to cover me" I said. He raised his eyebrow but didn't argue. Everyone became curious about what I was going to do as I looked around at where everyone was positioned. Natsu punched the lionesses away from me as I concentrated on my targets. I took a big breath in and then blew out a ten metre long stream of flames from my mouth. It twisted and turned in the air as it knocked each of the lionesses away from our group, one by one. Soon all the lionesses were knocked away, giving everyone a chance to cast their magic.

"Ice Make: Eagle!" Lyon chanted, several ice eagles appeared from his hands and attacked one of the lionesses. "Ice Make: Cannon!" Gray chanted, making an ice cannon before shooting at another lioness. Erza requiped a sword into her hand and slashed down two of the lionesses three times. Sting and Rogue used their white and shadow dragon roars to take down a couple of lionesses each. Yukino summoned one of her silver key spirits and took down one of the lionesses.

The Trimen took down three of the lionesses themselves. Hibiki used Force Blast with his Archive magic, Eve used White Fang with his Snow magic and Ren used Aerial Strike with his Air magic. Sherry made a Rock Doll with her magic and ordered it to smash one of the lionesses. Natsu used his Chaos Dragon Iron Fist to knock down two lionesses. Lastly it was my turn, "Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" I chanted as I threw my arms down and my flames knocked the last two lionesses.

"Pfft pathetic" I heard Sting mutter with my Dragon Slayer hearing and I whipped my head to him. "What was that?" I asked. "It's pathetic how long it took you to take down your enemies. You could've done it quicker if you used your roar. Is your magic not strong enough to take out a couple of lionesses?" Sting taunted. "Look man, Lucy was the one who knocked them back long enough so we could all cast our magic. So I suggest you shut up" Gray said with a glare as he stood beside me. "It's ok Gray. I bet he wouldn't be able to take me on with that pathetic White magic he's got. My flames can burn anything it touches. What are you going to do Sting? Blind me?" I taunted with a smirk. "Oo burn" I heard Happy whisper to Natsu. "I was hoping to fight Chaos sometime during this mission but I could settle going a few rounds with you first" Sting replied, lighting up his fist. In retaliation, I lit both my fists on fire and replied "bring it on Lightbulb."

"Alright that's enough" Erza said, stepping in between me and Sting. "We are meant to be fighting the enemy, not each other" she added and then Natsu stepped in front of me. He put his hand on my head and pat it twice. "Calm down" he said and then removed his hand. I took his advice and took a deep breath in to calm myself. "Ok I'm calm" I said.

"Ah guys, look at this" Eve said and everyone turned to look at the knocked-out lionesses. They were glowing purple and then suddenly shrunk into coins. The coins then began to levitate off the ground and fly over our heads. "Darn, I thought my darling creatures would be more than enough to take you all down" Rika, one of the Hydra Heads, said as the coins flew into her hand. Next to her were five more of the Hydra Heads members, Hiro, Haru, Seki, Misa and Yuma. Six of the nine Hydra Heads were standing right in front of us. Looks like the fight came to us.