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CHAPTER START---
"You've got to be kidding me," Gildarts groans while stepping out of the treeline.
Within a massive forest near the northern coast of Fiore stands a decrepit and overgrown castle, surrounded by hordes of the Magic Council's Rune Knights, currently forming a perimeter to keep everyone inside.
"The Guild Wizard is here!" One of the Rune Knights announces after spotting Gildarts.
He shields his face from the morning sun to get a better look at the man, and the older Rune Knight Captain walking over to him.
"Damn it, this has to be a joke, right?" Gildarts asks as the man meets him halfway to the battle line. Towering over him at just over seven feet tall and boasting a frame of dense muscle beneath the white and blue robe uniform.
"Working with you isn't my first choice either," the man says. "I requested Oberon, but all they could spare was you."
"I'm stronger," Gildarts says. "For a few more years at least…maybe."
The man rolls his eyes and turns on his heel, walking away as Gildarts falls into step behind him. "Any Fairy Tail S-Class could handle this, all I want is someone who won't bring down the entire damned castle along the way."
"One time…"
The captain scoffs. "One time per Job for you," he says as they arrive at the main barricade, stepping through the wall of men in similar white and blue robes, each wielding a red Magic Staff with simple offense, defense, and binding Magics.
"Look, I'll do my best not to bring this one down. And for the record, Oberon's been training on Tenroujima since his night at Blue Pegasus. I'm sure the Magic Council has been nervous about his disappearance."
The man glares down at Gildarts, who doesn't take him seriously. "Are you insinuating that we're spying on Oberon?"
"I was, but now I'm asking. Why are you spying on Oberon?"
"Aside from the fact that he has enough power to complete a series of S-Class Jobs without a break or returning to the Guild, and became S-Class at 9 years old? Is that not enough for the Magic Council to take an interest in him?"
Gildarts awkwardly rubs the back of his head. "Well…yeah. But he's a good kid, so don't get any ideas about him."
"We know better than to bother Makarov's children. Our main concern was him becoming another you. But from the looks of it, he's not far behind, and actively avoids collateral damage."
"Ugh, I've had enough of this crap," Gildarts pushes the man aside and walks through the line of Rune Knights, approaching the castle directly. "Bad enough I have to listen to Master Makarov complain about my collateral damage, I'm not going to take this from a damn Rune Knight of all people."
"Then try not to break the castle while capturing them!" the man yells out behind Gildarts.
"That's exactly what I'm going to do! You'll see!"
Gildarts narrows his eyes at the few wanted Wizards manning the castle walls, aiming their weapons and Magics at the people surrounding them.
As he's approaching, they launch of barrage of fire and lightning at him, but with a wave of his hand, Gildarts causes the projectiles to break into cubes and diffuse into the air with his Crash Magic, deconstructing the Spells.
"Only five of you, plus one dangerous artifact, should be easy enough," Gildarts mutters while breaking another wave of projectiles. "This technically isn't part of the castle, so…"
He shatters the ground beneath his feet with a stomp, activating his Crash Magic to detonate it into cubes and launch himself upward, high above the castle walls.
As he's soaring above, he looks down at the two men on the wall, then at the many men manning the other walls.
In a split second he recognizes what's going on. 'Those two have some kind of Clone Magic. They made copies of themself to look like a army, but the intel only said there were six people. The clones likely can't fight or use Magic, and only the originals have the fire and lightning staves. I'll just go for the main bodies…'
Gildarts flips in mid-air and spins, throwing two rock cubes he pocketed while launching above the castle moments ago.
Neither of the men react in time, each taking a cube to the shoulder with immense force, breaking their bones and the concentration on their Spells.
All the clones manning the walls are dispelled into Magic Energy and cease, but the Rune Knights dare not charge while Gildarts is in battle.
He lands in the castle courtyard in a deep crouch, only slightly cracking the ground while the last four men surround him.
At a glance, he sizes them up. 'Four people, only one holding the Flute,' he notices a decrepit wooden flute in one of the men's hands and instantly recognizes it.
'Lullaby supposedly has Death Magic that instantly kills anyone who hears it. But these guys can't control it, or they would have used it, and the Rune Knights can't risk them trying in some last-ditch effort. A stalemate, good thing that's something I'm great at breaking!'
One of the men thrusts both his palms out, activating his Metal-Make Magic and forming a carriage-sized cube of iron above Gildarts.
Gildarts tries to leap away, toward the man, but the stone beneath him is transmuted into water, sinking him in as the iron pushes him deeper. Before the men could follow up on their attack, he released Crash Magic upward, breaking apart the iron and water, then leaping out of the hole.
He locks eyes with the transmuter and moves to rush in, but the third man activates his High Speed Magic, moving faster than most people could visually track.
But Gildarts senses this and disappears in the same instant, and when both men slow down enough for the others to perceive, the High Speed user is sent flying into a wall with a broken jaw and an indentation from Gildarts' fist in his face.
Before the others can make sense of this, he fires a wave of Crash Magic at the transmuter, breaking apart the Spell being cast and disassembling the man.
However, Crash Magic cannot kill living things, and because of this property, the man breaks into hundreds of two-inch-tall copies of himself, all falling into a pile, confused as to what's going on, taking him out of the fight.
As the Metal-Make User is dumbfounded by this, and the last man moves to blow into the Lullaby Flute, Gildarts appears beside the Metal-Make user and grabs his face, spinning and throwing him into the castle wall.
The man is stuck in the wall when Gildarts rushes over to the last man with the flute and places a hand over his mouth, lifting the man to look into his terrified eyes while holding his wrist with the other hand.
Gildarts pulls the flute away from the man's mouth without breaking eye contact, crushing the wrist so much that the man drops the Death Magic Tool.
"Good choice." Gildarts tosses the man backward, allowing him to scramble back in fear while walking over to him, stepping over the flute. "Now, you have some information I need."
"The flute? Yeah! I mean, I can tell you where I got it. Sure, no problem," the man backs into some rubble and can't retreat anymore, allowing Gildarts to step right up to him and crouch to look him in the eyes.
"Save that crap for the Rune Knights. I want to know about Ivan Dreyar. Rumors say your little team made contact with him a few weeks ago. Where is he?"
"Ivan Dreyar," the man silently opens and closes his mouth a few times as another level of fear overtakes his features. "I um, no idea who that is. I swear!"
Gildarts grabs the man's face, crushing his head with a vice grip while pressing his skull into the rubble behind his head. Just enough for the stone and bone to begin cracking, then he lets go.
The man clutches his head as he screams, but Gildarts cuts him off by grabbing his mouth and forcing the man to look up at him. "Next time, I don't stop till my palm reaches the stone, regardless of what's between them, understand?"
The man fearfully nods as tears flow down his cheeks and blood leaks from his nose.
"Good," Gildarts lets him go. "Now, start talking, before the Rune Knights get here…"
CHAPTER END---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]