Chaos & Salamander

Chapter 20 - Whose Fire is Hotter?

Lucy's POV

During our search, we stumbled across an ancient temple. It was hidden behind the trees and embedded inside of a cliff face. Vines climbed up the stone walls and twisted around the columns. "Looks like we might have found where Raserath is hidden" Erza said as we looked at the temple.

"I knew I smelt a stench. Looks like it was coming from Blondie" Sting said as he showed up and walked towards us with Rogue and Yukino behind him. I growled and glared at him. Great, I'm turning into Natsu - note the sarcasm. "You want a piece of me jerk?" I threatened and lit my fist. He smirked and lit his fist up as well. "Bring it on" he said with clear interest.

"Stop it you two. We have more important matters to attend to" Erza said as she stood in between us. "She's right Sting" Rogue added. Sting and I tsked and extinguished our magic. Looks like I'll have wait to pick a fight with Mr Blond Jerk. "After this job, me and you are having a match Blondie" Sting said with a smirk and then walked into the temple, followed by Rogue and Yukino. "Don't let him rile you up Lucy" Gray said as he glared at Sting's back. "I can't wait to finish this job so I can punch that smirk right off his face" I growled.

We followed after the Sabertooth members and entered a large dark room. "Lucy do you mind?" Erza asked and I lit up my fist. The light from my flames lit the area around us but didn't hit a wall. "Wow, it looks like it goes on forever" Happy muttered as everyone looked towards the darkness. I noticed two braziers beside the doorway and lit one of them with my flames. As soon as my fire lit the brazier, other braziers around the room lit up one by one until the whole room was lit. The room was huge! It was as big as an arena and had rows and rows of large columns. In between some of the columns were the freshly lit braziers. At the end of the room, an old leatherbound book sat on the podium.

"That must be what Hydra Heads are looking for" Gray said. "Indeed, it is" a voice spoke and all of us whipped our heads behind us to the owner of the voice. It was Nightmare with seven other members of his dark guild. All of us put our guard up ready to fight. "Take care of these pests" Nightmare said to his guild and they jumped into action. Flame threw a fire attack at me and I ate it like I was eating an apple. His flames tasted good, but it wasn't the best flame I've tasted.

Flame smirked as he watched me eat his flame which was an unusual reaction I had to say. Usually people freak out when they see me eat flames for the first time. "So the rumours are true. The little fire dragon can eat flames." "That's not the only trick I do" I retorted while crossing my arms. "Oo feisty. You know, I've been looking for you Fire Dragon Slayer. I've been wanting to test my flames out on you" he said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Same here. Lets see whose fire is hotter, shall we? I'm all fired up!" I replied.

Around me, everyone else was spread out and fighting one of the members Hydra Heads except for Nightmare. While I was fighting with Flame, Natsu was fighting Misa with the help of Happy, Erza was fighting Kitsune, Gray was fighting Yuma, Yukino was fighting Rika and, the massive jerk and Rogue were fighting Hiro and Haru.

Misa may look like a cute little girl, but she could turn her dolls into monstrous creatures. Natsu was surrounded by three horrific creatures which were a stone troll, a werewolf and a dragon-lizard man. All three of them were three times the size of Natsu but I knew he could handle it. Erza was surrounded by multiple illusions of Kitsune and was trying to figure out which one was the real one. Gray looked like he was trying to punch and kick the air. Yuma's magic allows him to turn himself invisible. Yukino was fighting Rika's creatures with her celestial spirits. Mr Jerk was dodging water attacks from the Sea twin while Rogue was using his shadows to glide over the snake-like earth from the Land twin.

Back to my fight, I charged at Flame and aimed a Fire Dragon Iron Fist to his face. He jumped out of the way and my flaming fist made contact to the ground where he once stood. "Flame Whip!" he chanted while in midjump and threw a whip of flames down at me. I jumped back before the whip could hit me.

With a flick of a wrist, he twisted the flame whip around, so it wrapped around my right arm. Being impervious to all fire-based attacks, his flames didn't even burn me. I used my other hand to grab the whip and hold it there like we were playing a game of tug-of-war. "Interesting. Your arms aren't burning" he said, intrigued. "I was raised by a fire dragon. Your flames don't hurt me" I said and then slurped his flame whip like it was spaghetti. "Then I'll just have to try a different approach" he smirked, and I was curious about what he meant. Did he mean he was going to fight me without magic?

I decided not to think about it too much and breathed in for an attack. "Fire Dragon Roar!" I chanted and my flames charged towards him. The smirk never left his face as he lifted his hand and rotated two fingers. My flames swerved around him and flew back towards me. "What?!" I exclaimed as I ducked to avoid my own flames. It curved downwards and came back at me. With flames above me and coming behind me, my only option was to roll sideways.

The fire flew back to Flame and circled around him like a ring. "So you can't eat your own flames? That's good to know" he said with a smug grin. I stood up from my crouched position and gave him a smirk. "You're stronger than you look. I thought you were weaker than your guild mates" I taunted and that made him mad. "I'll show you who's weak" he said and then my flames flew towards me again. I did a back handspring just before the flames could hit me. "Fire Dragon Talon!" I chanted and kicked my flaming foot at the stream of flames. Both attacks cancelled each other out and I smirked towards him. "I won't go down so easily" I said. I knew this fight was going to be a bit of a challenge since he can control my flames.