Press and Retreat

Almost the entire fighting force of the guild Fairy Tail marches into Oak town, the home of Phantom Lord. The townsfolk upon seeing the murderous glares of the invading wizards, wisely shut themselves up in their homes. The town might as well not of been there at all for the attention Fairy Tail gave to it. Only one thing is on all of their minds, one unifying thought.

Phantom Will Pay!

The Master led the march with the trio dubbed the Strongest Team right behind him. Everyone else follows close behind those four. As they reach the front of the guild, which looks like an imposing stone castle, the Master nods at Natsu. With a flaming fist, he breaks open the entrance with a large explosion.

The Fairy Tail wizards fill up the newly made entrance and wait for the dust to settle. Natsu stands the enemy guildhall, hunched over and fist extended as he looks over the people who dare hurt his home and family.

The Master stands on a piece of rubble and shouts out a war cry, "Fairy Tail!" Both sides yell in anger and move in towards the other.

The war has begun.

A swarm of Phantom grunts jump to overpower Natsu who happens to be the closest mage to them. His eyes narrow and he gathers his fire to slash at them before they hit. More powerful than they can handle, the grunts fall from the air burned from dragon flames.

"I don't care who…Bring it on!" Natsu roars out in challenge. The Phantom mages accept his challenge and more rush the dragon slayer, planning on taking him out. By now, the other Fairy mages have entered the guildhall and start to battle as well. Cana, the heaviest drinker in Fairy Tail who uses card magic, and Loke, the orange-haired ladies man who uses ring magic, busts into a group of Phantom mages and send them flying.

Elfman, the larger yet younger brother of Mirajane, tosses enemies into the air while Vijeeter, the black spandex suit wearing dancer, uses his dancing magic to power up his friends. Macao uses his purple fire to capture a number of mages while Wakaba uses his smoke magic to knock out the captured grunts.

A buckskin poncho wearing youth with raven hair, who goes by the name Alzack, pulls out a gun and shoots the Phantom mages running towards him with magic bullets. While distracted, one mage almost gets a hit on Alzack if it wasn't for the timely intervention of the top notch shooting of Bisca, the large gun toting green-haired teammate of Alzack.

She proceeds to lock on target with more mages while using her magic hunting rifle to take them out at once. A large number of enemies target the Master thinking he will be easy to take out due to his small size.

They thought wrong.

He waits until they are in range with his eyes closed before opening them with a release of magic. His eyes glow with an unnatural yellow color as he grows in size until he makes an elephant look small. With a roar, he smashes a fist into the ground and catches some of the Phantom mages under his hand. The enemy wizards are terrified at the sight and some start calling him a monster.

To which the Master replies in a booming voice, "You laid hands on this monster's children! Don't think any human laws will protect you!" Leery of his strength, the Phantom mages hold back from attacking. They start complaining at how the Fairy Tail wizards are really good and completely nuts in their fighting.

Erza is cutting through the innumerable mages with a sword in each hand and her normal armor. Reedus, the large, curly-haired, painter with a wizard hat, paints large boars on his stomach and uses his magic to bring them to life before sending them to attack. Laki, the light purple-haired wood using mage, uses her magic to make confusing walls of attacking wood to mow down the grunts.

Even Happy gets to take part of the fight. As he is about to be swarmed, he gets the intense expression on his face before flying around at his max speed and causing the other mages to collide with each other. Using one of his hidden talents, he pulls out all sorts of fish and other foods from his green knapsack to beat the Phantom mages into submission.

Done with fighting the foot soldiers, the Master lifts his head up and booms out a challenge to the Phantom Lord's leader, "José, show yourself!" Erza changes into a different armor that gives her power against flames so she can deal more damage. She yells for the location of Gajeel and the Element 4, the five strongest known Phantom Lord wizards. Chaos reigns around the guildhall as Fairy fights Phantom with Fairy Tail winning.

As the fight rages on, the Phantom guildhall becomes more and more damaged with explosions rocking the town below. Some of the Phantoms rally together to make a concerted attack which seems to work at first. Unfortunately for them, their attacks were made with fire. More unfortunately, their target was Natsu. Hope fades to fear as they see the flames disappear into the gullet of a pink-haired Fairy Tail wizard.

Belatedly they realize that in their midst is one of Fairy Tail's more infamous members, Salamander the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Natsu's look of fury sends the nearby Phantom mages into panic-stricken terror and more than one suddenly finds themselves into needing a fresh pair of pants. Frozen, they can only just watch as Natsu's flame breath attack, Roar of the Fire Dragon, engulfs them.

More mages elsewhere get the cold shoulder, quite literally in fact, from an irate Gray. His ice magic leaves them completely frozen in place as they are incased in ice. Erza and Laki attack together, leaving the enemies bruised and confused.

The gun wielding duo continues to shoot down everyone who steps in their way. Gray and Natsu find themselves back-to-back fighting in sync as their contrasting elements war with the mages and each other. The other Fairy Tail wizards also form up into groups to protect each other's backs as the almost endless waves of Phantom mages continue to try to hammer them down.

"Erza!" the Master calls out from the top of a flight of stairs. The red head takes her mind off of the enemies in front of her to look at the old man who everyone in the guild loves just like a grandfather.

"I'll leave the rest here to you guys!" he continues as he swats away more low magic grunts of Phantom.

"Master!" she calls out worriedly.

"José is likely on the top floor… I'll put him out of commission for good…" he says in a calm voice that has a deadly edge to it.

Erza looks on in concern and whispers out, "Please be careful…" A large explosion at the huge pair of doors at the top of second floor announces Master Makarov's departure from the fight below.

A moment later, a crazy laugh from above sounds out throughout the hall which is soon followed by a crash. This catches the attention of most of the Fairy Tail mages as something large stands up from the destroyed wooden sign that said Phantom Lord.

"Geheh." chuckles a deep dark voice. Hearing this, some of the members of Phantom Lord take heart as they know who it is.

Looking focused, Erza says, "The Iron Dragon Slayer… Iron Gajeel!" At the sound of his name, Gajeel looks down on all of the mages with an evil eye that seems to glow red. Jumping high into the air behind Gajeel, Nab, who uses animal magic to give him the qualities of different animals and wears a tribal outfit, goes in to punch him.

"How dare you hurt Levy!" he shouts out in anger. Just as the punch is about to make contact, Nab is suddenly struck back by a large metal pole that is extending out of Gajeel's arm. It pushes Nab into the ground and continues pushing him which causes a large furrow to appear on the floor. The attack even hits Gajeel's guild mates as if he has no regard to their safety. As the metal pole retracts, it is shown that the metal pole is Gajeel's arm.

"Hey there, Trash. The Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel the Great, will face you now." Gajeel calls out almost cheerfully as he drops down to the ground floor with the other fighters.

"Man!" Yells out Elfman in anger. He jumps to attack Gajeel while still yelling, "Maybe I'm trash, but I'm a Man!" His right arm changes into a shape of some sort of giant stone arm as Elfman uses his takeover magic, a magic that lets his body take over the bodies of other creatures he has defeated. Gajeel's left arm turns into a metal pole and blocks Elfman's punch.

"Elfman, huh?" asks Gajeel with a wide grin on his face. He then starts kicking and punching at Elfman while using his limbs to turn into those metal poles. Elfman dodges the attacks and even stops one completely which interests Gajeel.

"Not bad." praises the Iron Dragon Slayer as his leg in pole form is being held in Elfman's fist.

"A Man must be strong." states Elfman simply.

"Then how about this?" throws out Gajeel before thinner metal poles extend out of Gajeel's leg which is still in the pole form. Many nearby Phantom mages gets hit by the attack while Elfman dodges despite the close range.

"Damn him, even his own friends?" Elfman blurts out in disbelief as he looks on at the rampart destruction caused by the dragon slayer.

With a fist cocked, Gajeel calls attention back to him with an arrogant, "Where do you think you're lookin'?" Then he punches the air toward Elfman while his fist changes into another pole and extends, hitting the white-haired Take-Over mage in the cheek.

The blow sends him flying through the air and before Elfman can land, Natsu jumps on his friend's stomach. With a kick, the Fire Dragon Slayer pushes Elfman even further back while propelling himself towards the larger figure of the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"Gajeel!!" Natsu roars out while flying towards his opponent. With a fist of fire, he knocks back the long, spiky, raven haired mage into the bar that runs along a wall. The other Phantom mages look on in shock and fear, never before have they seen someone strong enough to knock Gajeel back like that. With a large ecstatic grin, the red-eyed man picks himself up out of the damaged bar with no apparent trouble. With both fists on fire, Natsu decides to introduce himself.

"I'm Fairy Tail's Dragon Slayer." Natsu growls out with the pissed off look still in his eyes. Gajeel just gives a satisfied grunt in response.

"Elfman, give this guy to me." the fire mage demands.

"Why, you… Not only do you use me as a floor mat, you plan on interfering in our Man-on-Man battle?" Elfman shouts out angrily because of the interruption.

Not giving them time to talk, Gajeel shouts out his attack move while running forward, "Pillar of the Iron Dragon!" His fist shoots forward into the pillar while the grin stays on the fight-loving mage's face. It hits Natsu square in the chest and pushes him backwards as he clings onto the pole.

"Natsu!" Erza cries out, worried about her friend's safety while fighting a notably strong mage. As Natsu stands still after halting the press of Gajeel's pillar, heat waves can be seen rising from around him while clinging onto the metal pillar. His head down, no one can see Natsu's face as he starts to speak in a calmer voice.

"This guy busted up the guild and hurt Levy and the others…" Natsu then looks up into Gajeel's red eyes while glaring at him.

The Fire Dragon Slayer's arms light up as Natsu shouts, "Eat this!" Using his strength, he tosses Gajeel high into the air. Most of the fighting has stopped for now as everyone watches the fight between the two dragon slayers.

Each side is rooting for their own, hoping that they will beat the enemy. Gajeel is thrown high enough to reach the rather thick support beams that lie high above the main guildhall and he uses one as a kick off point to fly back down towards Natsu. Gajeel goes in for a normal punch which is blocked by Natsu's forearm. With the other fist cloaked in flames, the pink-haired wizard goes for a roundhouse punch to Gajeel's face.

Getting knocked backwards again, Gajeel flips through the air like a rag-doll as he bounces into a stone wall. The older members of Fairy Tail are getting excited by Natsu's apparent advantage over the other dragon slayer.

"Natsu!" Elfman bellows out. "I'll let you have that manly battle! But in return…" he gets interrupted by a confident Natsu.

"Right! I'll knock him good!" he says while having one fist pumped into the air and grabbing onto that arm's bicep with the other hand. Gajeel's fist pokes out of the pile of rubble that he is encased in before he stands up, looking slightly worse for wear. His clothes are getting tattered by the assault. He hunches into a battle ready position as he calls out to Natsu.

"That didn't affect me." he calls out in a cocky manner. Natsu's pissed off look fades and an excited grin shows up as he gets revved up to fight a strong opponent.

"Doesn't look like that to me." Natsu replies just as cocky.

"You sure?" asks Gajeel as he dashes forward to fight. He speeds up faster than before which catches Natsu off-guard and is sent flying into the air from a pillar kick. Natsu gets thrown into a group of Phantom mages and knocks them over like bowling pins. Gajeel walks slowly over to where Natsu landed, his eyes glinting evilly in the low light.

"Come on, bring it. You're not affected either, right?" he says in a slightly challenging tone. Flames explode from the pile of debris that Natsu is in, pieces go flying everywhere as Natsu nonchalantly stands in the middle of the inferno. The light of the fire makes his eyes look like they are glowing red as he laughs lightly.

"You know me pretty good there…" Natsu says in harsh excitement as the battle fever takes over. His flames die down quickly as he speaks and his face has an almost crazed look to it.

"Giheh" Gajeel laughs before he speaks.

"You're one hot and uncomfortable guy, you know that?" His lust for battle rising, Gajeel activates the magic in his right arm.

"Shut up, you hard-ass." Natsu bites back as he too activates his magic in his right arm. The adrenaline is pumping between the two as they prepare to take things more seriously. Gajeel makes the first move.

"I'll crush you!" he shouts out as he throws the first punch with a pillar to Natsu's face as he dashes to the side. Natsu blocks it with a flaming fist before it hits. Holding the pole in a tight grip, Natsu turns up the heat in his flames.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, you scrap-iron bastard!" he shouts harshly as his grip tightens. The heat causes the iron to weaken and the pillar starts getting crushed in Natsu grip.

Gajeel looks at this unconcerned as he says calmly, "Oh? Just as the rumors say… That's some decent power you got there. Ouchy, ouchy…" He retracts the pillar quickly and his hand smokes from the fire.

Gajeel locks eyes with Natsu as he continues, "So? Is that all you got, Salamander?" Natsu holds up a flaming fist as the pissed off look returns.

"Don't worry 'bout that. This was just a greeting. Before our Dragon's fight" he retorts in a much lower voice than before. They stare at each other, waiting for someone to make the first move. Narrowing their eyes, they crouch down and use their magic power to launch themselves in the air at each other. Natsu roars and Gajeel laughs crazily before they impact. They start attacking and Gajeel gets a lucky kick on Natsu which pushes him back some.

"Heavy…" he grunts out in some pain, more surprised at the weight the attack had behind it. Gajeel presses the attack, leaping high into the air and coming down with a foot extended for a stomp. Natsu's fist lights anew and takes a swing at Gajeel after stopping the stomp with his forearm. Gajeel leans back to dodge the flaming punch and kicks off of Natsu's arm to jump out of range.

Hitting a special switch, two blades extends out of Gajeel's calf-high boots and he uses them to anchor himself to one of the building's support beams. Natsu quickly follows with a magic powered high leap of his own and goes for another fiery punch to Gajeel's head.

The Iron Dragon Slayer barely gets his arm up in pillar form to block the attack. The power behind it causes him to get knocked through several support beams, each one as thick as the Iron Dragon Slayer. Natsu lands on a different support beam in a crouch as he watches Gajeel's path.

"Now, I'm all fired up!" Natsu harshly calls out. Gajeel by this time recovers from the attack and lands on another support beam, again upside down and in a crouch. The grin has yet to leave his face, too caught up in enjoying the fight.

"Got a bit of a destructive streak in you, huh?" Gajeel observes. Large pieces of timber fall to the floor below, unmindful of the mages underneath. Both sides are at a standoff, almost as if they are waiting for the battle between dragon slayers to decide which side wins. Soon the entire guild starts to shake as if in an earthquake.

The Phantom mages become uneasy, not knowing what is going on. The members of Fairy Tail only smile at the uneasiness of their enemies. They know that the shaking means one thing. Master Makarov's anger is being released, the Giant's Wrath. Fairy Tail takes heart, knowing that they cannot lose with their Master fighting alongside them.

Up above at the top of the guild, the Master is walking lightly upon the ground while it craters from the sheer force of his magic being released. A soft yellow light envelops the old man as he makes his way towards Master José Porla, the leader of Phantom Lord. So immense is the power, that the tower starts to break apart and electricity crackles around the Master.

Reaching a set of doors that would dwarf anyone, one blast of magic power from the Master and almost the entire wall explodes in a shower of rocks and dust. As the dust settles, the short stature of the Master is seen walking through the room. The only indication of his movement is the cracks in the floor growing wider and wider as they spread through the room.

Master José sits upon a throne-like chair with an entirely too smug for his own good look on his face, completely unruffled by the Master of Fairy Tail's entrance. Master Makarov stops in the middle of the room, by which now is almost completely destroyed and glares hatefully upon the other guild master.

"José!" the Master cries out in unadulterated fury. Unmoving, the smarmy red-headed leader of the guild sits upon his throne with his legs and arms crossed.

"Well, well…" is all José has to say.

"What is the meaning of this? Answer me!" the Master demands, ready to battle at a drop of a hat and his power still pouring off of him like a raging waterfall.

"It has been a while, Makarov-san. Not since the regular guild meeting six years ago? I'm afraid I made a fool of myself then. Liquor really does me in." José says perfectly calm like nothing is wrong. His position doesn't change and he doesn't even lift his head from where the large purple wizard's hat is covering his eyes. The Master hunches over in anger, getting into a battle ready position.

His arm grows in size as he rears back and sends a punch with an extending arm not unlike how Gajeel's pillars work. His fist grows to be larger than José and the chair combined as he makes contact with the target of his ungodly fury. The magic Master Makarov has been exuding recedes as he focuses now on fighting and not intimidation.

"I did not come here to chat, José!" the Master grounds out from almost gritted teeth. The dust in the air from that attack settles to show José in the same spot, unmoving like the attack never occurred. The image of José flickers, not unlike how a television screen would when the signal starts getting interrupted.

The hologram-like image starts to laugh lightly as the Master bellows out in frustration, "You're just a thought-projection?" the old man's arm retracts back to its normal size as he looks on, more than irritated that he can't exact his revenge just yet.

"Damn you! You ran from the guild?" Master Makarov asks, demanding an answer.

"A battle between two of the 10 Great Wizard Saints would surely cause a cataclysm." says José with the same smug looking expression on his face. He looks up and fixes the Fairy Tail Master with a piercing look. "I would prefer a simple, sensible victory."

The unbridled hatred is heard clearly in the Master's voice as he asks, "Where are you? Come fight me fair and square!" In response, a figure laying on the ground appears into view at the feet of José. As it becomes clear enough to be recognizable, Master Makarov stares at it in shock. There before him was an image of Lucy, one of his newest children, there on the ground unconscious and tied up.

"Lucy? Why?" he chokes out the questions, overcome with feelings of concern over the young girl and fearful for her life.

"Why, you ask?" José says, as if it is the simplest answer in the world. "Even though she is part of your guild? You're saying you have no idea who Lucy Heartfilia-sama is?" Phantom Lord's Master asks in disbelief. Without waiting for an answer, José* lifts up his right arm and starts to activate his magic, the target being the unconscious Lucy.

Knowing that she is just a thought projection and that he can't do anything to protect her, the Master still extends a hand as he moves forward in a desperate attempt to save another one of his beloved children from harm.

"Don't!" The Master cries out in fear. Without Makarov noticing, a large figure in green appears behind the short man, his hands already in place to cast a spell on the Master of Fairy Tail. Noticing the large man's presence way too late, he turns to face the newcomer as a spell is cast against him. Large, unnatural tears spill from underneath the bandages covering the figure's eyes like twin rivers.

"The, the, the sadness!" the figure in green cries out in despair as he activates his magic. The Master raises his arm to try to block whatever is being thrown at him and to protect his eyes from the bright glare of the other's magic.

Quickly overwhelmed, the Master is blown away by the spell. His magic which was nearly limitless is reduced to nothing in less than a second. The shock of the drain causes him to fall down through a hole in the floor caused by his magic earlier while his skin turns a sickly green from the spell's effects.

He falls down many stories until he lands with a large crash into the ground floor of the guildhall. A fall like that would of killed any normal person at even one-quarter of the height. But we are not talking about a normal human here, this is the Master of Fairy Tail and one of the 10 Great Wizard Saints, who are comprised of the top ten most powerful mages in the entire world.

He survives the fall, but barely. The crash attracts the attention of the fighting mages. The members of Fairy Tail look on, horrified, to see their once proud and powerful Master, laying on the ground almost dead. They stand frozen, not believing what they are seeing.

"Gramps!" Natsu and Gray cry out in fear.

While Erza shout out, "Master!" at the same time. As if their words hit a switch, the members of Fairy Tail go to surround and protect their beloved leader. Erza runs over as fast as she can and gently picks up the Master in her arms. Shock, disbelief, worry, confusion, and fear dances across her face and eyes.

"M-My magical power… My magical power!" is all the Master can force himself to say, too weak to have it go above a whisper. Erza hugs him tighter to her when she hears this. Cana is kneeling by his head with Natsu, Gray, and Happy standing a bit further away but no less worried than the rest of their guild.

"Master, hang in there!" the red head cries out.

"What happened?" Cana asks the Master anxiously.

"What is this?" asks Gray, completely distrusting his senses. "I can't sense any magical power at all from him!" Elfman approaches and heard what Gray said.

He asks, "You mean he's now nothing but a little old man?" incredulous to the whole idea of it being true.

"But why?" Happy starts to cry, becoming overwhelmed by the sight.

"Gramps, get it together!" Natsu shouts out in fear. The old man doesn't respond. He doesn't even blink. If it wasn't for his chest moving, you would think he is dead.

The other members of Fairy Tail whisper amongst themselves, trying to wrap their minds around this new situation. As the Fairy Tail mages grow somber and disheartened by the tragedy, on the other side Phantom Lord wizards are getting a morale boost as they too figure out what is going on.

With the Fairy Tail Master out of the way, they feel they now have a chance to win. With a congregated roar, the Phantom Lord mages renew their attacks on the now weakened Fairy Tail forces. Erza instantly figures out the situation and it looks bad.

Her friends took a huge blow to their morale and their worry over the Master has cut their fighting power down significantly. With the renewed vigor of their enemies, the Fairy Tail wizards are getting beaten back.

That's without the help of Gajeel or the Element 4, and if José himself decides to come and fight… Erza knew what needed to be done, as much as she hated to admit it but there was only one option left for them if they had any hopes of making it out with everyone alive.

With a deep breath, she bellows out the command, "Retreat! Everyone return to the guild!" It tore at her heart having to say that, and it went against everything they believed at Fairy Tail. But if the Master had any chance of survival they had to leave.

Now.

Shocked, her friends look back at Erza, unsure if they heard her correctly. Did Erza Scarlet, otherwise known as Titania, Queen of the Fairies, The Strongest Female in Fairy Tail, the mage who doesn't know how to hold back, actually tell them to run away?

They protest against leaving the battle, still wanting to fight despite how badly they are now getting beaten, but she stands firm.

"No! Without the Master, we cannot defeat José! Retreat! That's an order!" She shouts out, hiding her pain at having to leave before avenging her fallen comrades. Begrudgingly, they group up and start leaving, much to the delight of the Phantom mages. The previously beaten up wizards shower the retreating Fairies with taunts and insults, overjoyed in their victory.

As the members of Fairy Tail gather to leave with heavy hearts over their defeat and the critical condition of their master, they knew that even though the battle was lost the war was far from being over. Not wanting to give up the fight, Natsu ignore Erza's order in favor of beating the tar out of more Phantom Lord mages. His attention is pulled away from fighting when his sensitive hearing picks up on a name that Gajeel utters.

Lucy.