Arriving near the abandoned amusement park with Jura, we made sure to keep a bit of a distance while we conducted a thorough perimeter search, though, after three hours and four circles, we returned empty-handed, which, ironically enough, was more suspicious than finding something. By the time we finished, it was the afternoon, and we decided to have a small break at a restaurant as we were also hungry.
"So both of us found nothing? No clues?" Shaking my head, I used my hands to eat a large steak, ripping out small chunks with my teeth while pouring sauce into my mouth to enhance the flavor. "What do you suggest? Cooper?" Furrowing my brows, I drank water to help wash the food down my throat before I gasped for air. "Walk into the amusement park and face their trap head-on." I saw Jura's expression twitch at my remark, causing me to shrug my shoulders as I continued to stuff my mouth with steak.
Once we finished eating our late lunch, we left the restaurant and headed in a different direction, away from the amusement park, causing me to tilt my head in confusion as I looked at Jura. "Where are we going?" "To visit the amusement park owner; perhaps they might know something." Raising an eyebrow, I faintly nodded as this reasoning was sound; I was just curious how he learned who the amusement park's owner was, though I eventually shrugged my arms, figuring he might've known beforehand.
Leaving the entertainment district, we headed towards where the wealthy live before eventually stopping in front of a large estate with a massive mansion in the distance behind a gate that kept us out. "Hmm, don't these wealthy people usually hire people to protect them?" Glancing at Jura in slight confusion from the lack of security, he nodded with a stern expression before stepping forward and forcefully opening the gate as we walked to the mansion in the distance. Although we hadn't arrived, we could see the lack of anyone present, no security, maids, or anything of the sort, which was highly suspicious.
When we arrived at the mansion, I busted the front doors off the hinges, allowing us to enter the mansion. "I'll search the second floor." Glancing at Jura, who nodded, he turned down a hallway to the right while I leaped onto the second floor before walking down another hallway. Opening every door I came across, I quickly scanned the room before moving on to the next one until I eventually arrived at an office, which I assumed was the one the previous owner used. 'Hmm, I can still smell his scent… They didn't leave too long ago.' Sniffing the chair, I clicked my tongue while searching through the desk, finding nothing but an empty lacrima, causing me to furrow my brows in confusion.
I searched the rest of the room, but other than the lacrima, there was nothing else in the room; leaving the office, I leaped over the second-floor railing, landing just in front of the stairs, only to see Jura approach me with a slightly frustrated expression. "I hope you found something; otherwise, we wasted our time." Nodding, I tossed Jura the lacrima, causing him to furrow his brows. "I don't know why it's here, but I found it in the office desk; it looks like a communication lacrima." Folding my arms, I sat down on the stairs while Jura inspected the lacrima before injecting his magic power into it, though nothing happened and no one answered.
"Does it wor-" I couldn't finish speaking as Jura and I widened our eyes as we sensed an enormous amount of magic power below us. Without any time to gauge what was happening, we reacted instantly, using our magic to protect us; Jura encased himself within a thick earth cube while my skin shimmered gold, just in time for a fiery explosion to envelop us.
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Dark Mage POV
Watching the mansion erupt into an explosion from a distance, I smiled before grabbing the communication lacrima from my waist as I quickly called my allies. "Smart thinking to move the trap; they activated it! Quickly, tell your group to close in; the explosion will leave them injured, but it won't kill them. If we wait, they may manage to escape!" My allies nodded and gave their mages several orders.
"Tsk, sounds good; we can finally eliminate that stupid 'Beast' of Fairy Tail!" "Agreed, he's been causing us lots of trouble and has been a thorn in our side for the last several months." "Remember, we want to capture them alive; they should serve as good ritual subjects." Although I nodded, I couldn't help but click my tongue at her words.
I would prefer to just kill 'Beast' and get this over with, but she made a good point; it wasn't every day that we'd come across such good quality mages, especially those so young. Ending the communication, I placed my lacrima in my pocket before turning around and gazing at my twenty mages.
"C'mon, follow me, it's time to take action! Remember, don't kill 'Beast' Or 'Iron Rock'; we want them alive." After giving my orders, I put on my hood and floated into the sky while my mages followed behind me, leaping from roof to roof as we headed toward the mansion. While in the air, I could spot one of my allies along with their group of mages; as for the other two allies, they came from a different direction, so I was unable to see them, but we would meet up at the mansion, which I was not worried about.
'This shall be the end of you, Beast.'
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Groaning in pain, I coughed aggressively while pushing the mountain of debris off of me until I was finally able to see sunlight, prompting me to leap through the small gap as I escaped the destroyed mansion. "F-Fucking hell." Waving my hand, blowing away the dust, I was about to look for Jura, though before I could, the pile of debris I was standing on began to shake, prompting me to move out of the way.
A large earth pillar erupted from the ground, pushing the debris away and allowing Jura to climb out of the mansion we had been buried under. Helping Jura onto his feet, he patted my shoulder while aggressively coughing, though before I could speak, I quickly kicked his stomach, causing a magical bullet to narrowly miss him.
"Jura, we're under attack!" Glancing at Jura, who grunted before nodding with a solemn expression, I side-stepped to the right, narrowly dodging another magical bullet from penetrating my chest as it scraped my arm instead, creating a small gash. Looking in the direction the bullet came from, I furrowed my brows, only to leap to the side, dodging another bullet from a different angle, causing me to click my tongue. 'This stupid dust cloud is obstructing our vision.' Raising my head, I faintly smirked before dashing to Jura, who just blocked a bullet that exploded with an earth wall.
"Jura! Throw me into the air!" Leaping toward Jura, who glanced at me in confusion before quickly nodding while clasping his hands together. Landing on Juras's fists, I leaped off him while he threw me into the air, causing me to shoot through the sky like a missile, quickly leaving the dust cloud that enveloped nearly the entire estate. Floating in the air, I spotted four groups of mages wearing dark cloaks; each group had about twenty mages along with a leader. However, while the twenty mages weren't anything special, with that many working together, they were somewhat dangerous, and when you multiply that by four, it was a pretty decent problem.
Of course, while eighty weaklings were rather troublesome to deal with, they wouldn't be able to stop Jura or I from escaping, not like I would when I'm alone; instead, the leaders of each group were a problem. They were pretty strong, with four of them along with eighty weaklings; we were trapped; the leaders would ensure we couldn't escape while they and the weaklings would whittle us down. 'As much as I hate to admit it, we're fucked.' Taking a deep breath and inhaling large amounts of air, I expelled it all in one powerful breath, prompting most of the dust cloud to be dispersed while I fell to the ground, landing beside Jura, who faced the numerous enemies that surrounded us.
"Our situation doesn't look good… We need to figure out a way to escape." Hearing Jura, I faintly chuckled while licking my lips and eyeing my numerous prey. "Heh, remember when I said I'm highly reckless, Jura? Escaping isn't something I do… I did it once and never again. I can make a diversion so you can escape, but I'm staying behind." Grinning, I glanced at Jura, whose stoic expression broke as he looked at me like I was an idiot, though I didn't give him the chance to speak as I dashed to my right, lunging toward the closest group while evading magical bullets from one of the four leaders.
"C-COOPER!!" "Hehe!"