2/3

"So Kecleon was right about the Magic Bomb part." Nic whispered to Erza. They both were now back to back, each facing their targets; Erza facing Seazer, and Nic against Hybren.

"Yes, it would appear so." She said. She then glared at Seazer with the need for justice and to put an end to Tartaros. "We'll have to defeat these guys if we are to save those trapped here."

Nic shifted into his Splash Plate Form and glared at Hybren with an extreme need for thrash him. "I couldn't agree with you more."

The two enemies shared a chuckle and they both got into fighting stances. Erza and Nic proceeded as such and the staring contest was over.

"Come at us." Both enemies said in unison. With no other words to be said, they both darted for their opponents.

Nic jumped and his arm was encased in water and shaped into a crab's claw. "Crabhammer!" He yelled as he came down with a mighty assault and Hybren grinned and his right arm grew and morphed into a large scaly, purple reptilian hand with big claws. He held out his hand and he easily blocked the attack. The shockwave rippled as the attacks collided. Both struggled to overpower the other, but Nic was still slightly faster. He quickly retracted his hand and hopped onto the ground and dashed into Hybren.

"Please." Hybren sighed as he then grew a large purple, scaly tail with a blood red spike silhouette reaching to the end. He swung it and Nic jumped and fired a Bubblebeam with his enemy's back turned. Hybren stepped back as he felt the hit. He grumbled as he turned and looked back at Nic.

"Okay, I admit pal. You caught me off guard with my tail swing, but I'm just getting started!" He exclaimed.

"Same!"

With Erza's battle, she spun and tried slashing at him, but he easily brushed her off with his sturdy gauntlets. He then stepped back and avoided another slash rom her sword. He kept avoiding her attacks with ease, moving towards his left and ducking upon her fourth missed slash. He gave an uppercut that got her in the abdomen, to which she grunted and skid back a few feet.

She adjusted her stance and Seazer did as such. Erza then adjusted her sword angle. "You're a lot quicker than I have imagined."

He only grinned and then he brought out his double pronged sword. He showed it to Erza as she crouched, awaiting what he would do.

He smirked. "Go ahead." He challenged. The great Titania wasn't one to back down from a challenge as she thrusts forward and swiped across his sword, hoping to have cut through, but to no avail. She went wide eyed as her sword actually shrunk to the size of her fist. She gasped and leaped back as a precaution.

Seazer chuckled. "Heh, what's the matter? Wouldn't you rather fight me with toothpicks? Is so, then I'll gladly arrange that with my Flucture. You like it? It can shrink anything that it touches and more." He chuckled again.

Erza was getting fairly annoyed. "You coward!"

Back with Nic, he narrowly evaded a claw by spinning to his right and shifting to his left to avoid the tail. He once again leaned right and ducked to dodge a swipe from his claw. The guy then turned and his tail swung like a wrecking ball that was coming at Nic.

Nic grunted as he had little time to act. He used Water Gun and aimed straight down, propelling him straight up and evading the tail. In midair, he used a downward angled Water Pulse, creating a blue sphere of water and launching it at him.

"Heh. Scale Storm!" He then retracted his tail and now his other arm was a large scaly reptilian arm with claws. He brought his arms across one another and slashed across in a double arc, unleashing glowing purple scales in the arc. The scales were unleashed at a fast rate and the Water Pulse was easily nullified, exploding in midair. The scales continued onward and exploded as they hit Nic and he grunted loudly. Nic back flipped and landed and skid backwards to regain footing as soon as he could. Hybren then chuckled and lunged at Nic with both giant claws.

"Razor Shell!" Nic shouted. His arms then turned into blades of light blue energy and were like swords. He lunged forward and collided with the claws with his Razor Shell attacking in the shape of and X. The two once again tried to overpower the other, but neither side was giving and edge. Nic acted fast as he crouched while still colliding and slashed across, not only making the claws go over his head while he lunged at a low angle, but left his opponent open for an in-your-face attack. "Hydro Pump!" A large mirror of water appeared and the guy was no match for an almost point blank high-pressure assault. Nic unleashed a high pressured water blast and the guys creamed as he was shot upwards at an angle and crashed into the ceiling with a harsh shudder. Rocks were falling and so was he, but he could still fight nonetheless as he retracted both his arms and morphed and grew his tail again and swatted the falling rocks at Nic. Nic used Razor Shell again and slashed through the oncoming rocks like they were nothing. Hybren landed on the ground and wagged his spiked tail in excitement.

"Well, it would appear that I am getting excited, for I haven't had an astonishing fight like this in ages." He admitted.

"Hey, guess what?" Nic said.

"What?" Hybren wondered.

"I don't care!" Nic took in a huge breath and unleashed a Brine at him. The saltwater attack was coming in fast, and Hybren swiftly retracted his tail and his feet then turned into two scaly clawed purple feet. He used the strength of his feet and jumped and evaded the Brine.

"Scale Ripple!" He then came down and slammed both feet deep into the earth. He not only created a crater that was a seven foot radius, but a huge ripple of scales shot up from the ground and made its way towards Nic.

Nic had little options to use for this attack. He had little time as well. He tried avoiding it by propelling himself upwards with Water Gun again to keep a distance, but the scales still were able to reach him and burst upon rapid impact. Nic yelped as he was hit and slammed into the ground.

Hybren laughed as Nic turned to his side. "Give up Luminous?"

Nic got one leg under him and then the other. He let out a huff of air and cracked his knuckles. "Please, I'm not taking this lying down scale brain."

Back to Erza, she couldn't even land a hit on her opponent. Not only was he fast, but he was using his double-pronged sword to shrink any and all of her swords that she had summoned. Erza had to see if she could outnumber him and to do so, she needed to muster up a lot of force.

"Requip!" Erza transformed into her (now repaired) Heaven's Wheel Armor and had twenty swords rotating around her. "Dance, my blades!" She then made the swords all around her rotate at high speed and pointed straight at him. "Circle Sword!" The swords then charged at Seazer and were striking him in numerous numbers.

He grunted as he could only shrink a few upon touching them, but the other swords attacked him and he fell back with a thud. He opened his eyes and looked up at Erza.

Erza descended to the ground and held up a long sword. "Just as I thought, you can only minimize those blades that make contact with only your sword, leaving you defenseless." She explained.

Seazer growled and rushed for her, but she had already trapped him in a spiraling swirl of swords. Erza had the swords all rapidly bombard him all about as he could not keep up and he was swatted about in all directions and could hardly move.

'Crap! This lady is hitting me with outnumbering attacks!' He thought, but was unable to process Erza now hovering above him as he assumed she would attack through the spiral. 'Oh crap!'

Erza soared down onto him with her large sword now poised and ready as he was still scrapped about by the swirling sword spiral. "Pentagram Sword!" She then slashed at him in a pentagram shape and also completely shattering his sword. He yelled as he fell with a thud, defeated by the sheer force of her assaults.

Once he was defeated, his Magic was dispelled with the destruction of his sword and all of her tiny swords grew back into their original size. Erza huffed as she used quite a bit of Magic to fight this time. She dispelled all of her swords and requipped into her Heart Kreuz Armor.

Back with Nic, he also found a flaw with his opponent as he morphed his right arm and left arm.

He smirked, something that Hybren picked up on.

"What could you find so amusing?" He demanded to know.

Nic bared his teeth as he shifted into his Stone Plate Form. "Well, it appears that you can only morph two body parts at a time, with the bonus of having a tail. That leaves the rest of your body pretty much open." Nic explained.

Hybren picked up on Nic's analysis and was angry. He wasn't gonna be bested by this punk no way no how. He gritted his teeth as he unleashed his assault at Nic and Nic anticipated such an attack.

"Ancient Power!" Nic yelled. His body glows and creates a see-through afterimage of himself. The afterimage then spins and turns into a silver ball that Nic grabbed and hurled at the oncoming enemy. The attack exploded once it had hit him square in the face. He flew back and yelped as he quickly shifted both his scale arms to scale legs to increase its lower body strength and avoid skidding, but that didn't help him for what came next.

"Rock Tomb!" Nic outlined himself in white and multiple gray rocks outlined in white formed above him in the shape of a ring, then he motioned his arms forward and the rocks above sailed and were hurled at Hybren.

There were just too many rocks and he could only jump. He managed to avoid by leaping fairly high, but one gray rock got him in his left leg. He yelped as he was hit and descended just as the attack finished, making him crash and shatter into several gray boulders. He struggled as he turned. He was forced to retract his scale legs and slowly tried to get up. He grunted and winced as he could not move as fast.

"You'll pay for that!" He shouted. Nic then brought his hands together and created multiple transparent glowing gems around his head.

"That'll be the day! Power Gem!" He then extended out his hands and the gems lit up and unleashed a gleaming beam at his opponent. The blast made Hybren recoil as he had little to no room. He was surrounded by boulders and he couldn't jump or run.

"DAMMIT!" He shouted just before the attack enveloped him and exploded. A large shining cloud consumed the area around him and he yelled as even the boulders shattered upon impact.

Nic watched as the dust cleared, revealing the boulders from earlier to be no more, and Hybren had dropped to his knees with several injuries from the assaults. He then face planted and landed with a loud thud in defeat.

Nic glared at him and turned away, having this business done and over with. He and Erza both regrouped and Erza analyzed his new form. She looked at him starting from the bottom and worked up top.

Nic smirked. "You like what you see?" He playfully said, causing Erza to smile and look away blushing from his deadpanned comment.

"Nic." She said, still turned away, and still smiling as a matter of fact. "Though your new form is rather impressive, we must continue with the mission."

Nic blinked a couple times and shifted back into himself, acknowledging what she had said. "Right. I'll set the ones in the cell free over there and you get the ones out from the contraptions." He said. He then went right and Erza went left to do as instructed. Nic went over towards the cells and shifted into his Meadow Plate Form and used Leaf Blade and sliced straight through the iron bars that held captive maybe at least one hundred people.

"Quick, everyone outside!" Nic shouted and everyone had just rushed to where Nic and Erza both had just entered. Within a minute, they were out and heading back up to the surface. Only a few had stayed to assist those who needed to get out of the contraptions.

Erza had already done her part and used a sword to cut off the wire that connected the contraptions. The very few people inside were still somewhat drained and fatigued, so the people who stayed behind did their part and aid in them getting out and catching up with the crowd.

With every single person evacuated, they both turned their attention towards the large dark pink lacrima, aka the bomb.

"Okay…how do we stop it?" Nic asked.

They then heard someone else's voice in the distance. "You can't."

Nic and Erza both turned here and there to see where the voice was coming from.

"Show yourself!" Erza shouted, getting a sword ready. They then heard an evil laughter and then they saw the air in front of them distort and twist. Erza felt a cold feeling going up and down her spine, and Nic could feel the ominous presence growing with the familiar scent of Tartaros.

Nic snarled as he recalled the last three and The Nightmare. Those memories were fueling Nic with the need to break this guy into pieces, so he wasn't at all surprised like Erza was. The space finally distorted and some cloaked man with a hood appeared.

"So, it was you. You sick swine." Nic reprimanded the cloaked Tartaros member. He paid no heed as he chuckled.

"Well now. Thank you for clearing the stage you two." He said in a modest tone. "Those meat sacks were useless at this point anyway."

Nic didn't appreciate this, and he most certainly wasn't going to waste time with this guy. Erza felt the same when she got over her initial shock.

Erza held a sword towards the cloaked Tartaros member. "Enough! Deactivate and terminate the Magic Bomb!" She ordered.

The cloaked man evilly grinned and he snapped his fingers. Just then, the Magic Bomb started to glow. Nic and Erza both stepped back in defense.

"I suppose that I should warn you that there's only fifteen minutes until this thing blows." He amusingly said.

Erza stepped forward. "Why are you doing this?! Tell me!" She demanded with such authority. The man then chuckled yet again.

"I suppose…" He then reached and pulled off the hood that concealed his face. Nic snarled and Erza grunted as they saw him.

His eyes were white, but the iris's and pupils both were oval rather than circle. His iris were both dark pink and he had sharp teeth and his hair was combed back and was black with blood red strands going back as well. The circles under his eyes were black compared to his pale skin. He then took off his cloak, revealing a long jacket with blood red outlining and black. The sleeves were long and spacious, allowing room to show his muscles with black markings all about. His pants were baggy and black and had blood red markings that represented the Tartaros symbol on both his pants thighs.

He smirked even more evilly now. He was fixated on their demise. "You wanna know why? I'll tell ya! This world itself is meant to be brought into an eternal darkness, a darkness so pure that only those who follow in Zeref's footsteps shall live and those who don't shall burn in the depths of Hell and will forever be screaming for forgiveness in the name of Zeref. He shall be reborn and I shall announce that by destroying this whole town and everything in a five mile radius! This world shall be eradicated of the clueless and will thrive with demons and the Magic only Zeref shall grant them!"

Nic made an irritated look and snarled. He then pointed accusingly at him. "Zeref is overrated!"

"How dare you speak of the great Lord Zeref! Forever be damned and burn!" He shouted. Erza quickly got in front of Nic and had a sword that was ready to defend.

"Nic, be ready!" Erza warned.

"You filthy trash shall perish!" He exclaimed to the two Fairy Tail members.

Nic stepped forward and had his hands on his hips, all sassy like. You could easily tell he was going to deadpan something. He leaned his head forward and mildly spoke. "Yeah? Well you look like something I would leave in the toilet."

And that snapped a nerve.

"I, Riftalla, shall crush you into oblivion!" He then extended both his hands out and Nic could feel the air around him twist and he saw his left shoulder distort. He was stunned and he yelped as he felt his should twist with the air and the air itself distorting so that it made it hard to breath for him. "My Spacial Curse shall make you suffer before death!"

Nic clamped his own mouth shut and straightened out very slowly. He shifted with whatever focus possible and turned into his Sky Plate Form. He yelped once more before he took off into the air. Riftalla grunted as his target managed to escape. Nic flapped in the air, but his shoulder was all damaged. He would have to use Synthesis in his Meadow Plate Form once this is all over. Nic himself grunted as he sailed at him with an Aerial Ace and Erza quickly requipped into her Black Wing Armor and took off towards Riftalla as well.

He smirked as he had both arms out and the entire air in front of him began to distort. Nic and Erza both stopped in place to see what he was doing. They both went wide eyed when the air in front of them exploded. They both stopped in place to avoid being hit by the sudden wall of explosions.

"Do you like it? My Spacial Curse also allows me to distort the air particles and make them implode, causing explosions out of thin air.

'Sounds a bit like Aria's Magic.' Erza thought. She then positioned herself to charge. 'If that's true, then I should cut through the air with no problem.' Erza did a battle cry as she flew in and slashed through the wall with ease thanks to the immense attack boost of her armor. Riftalla was a little surprised, but was even more shocked when he was actually hit by Erza's sword. He skid back and easily brushed off her assault. Erza grunted as she thought this was going to be harder than she thought if her Black Wing Armor could only do this much.

Nic flapped in the air and used Air Cutter at Riftalla; however, he easily extended out his hand and he made the Air Cutters distort and implode as they soared at him. Nic grunted again and this time soared at him with Aerial Ace.

"Take this!" Nic shouted. Riftalla wasn't impressed.

"Nice try!" He extended his hands out again and was going to distort Nic again.

"Not gonna happen! Tailwind!" He then had a huge wind boost him and he managed to bypass the distorted space.

Riptalla went wide eyed when Nic did so and was hit with a fast moving attack. He skid back and he pivoted to keep ground, but didn't know that Erza was behind him thanks to the boost from Tailwind.

Erza was going to slash at him again, but he made the space in front of her implode so that she would have to back off. Erza flew back and up to evade the attack and looked down at Riftalla. He was no joke.

Nic was circling around, going to use maybe a Wing Attack with the combined Tailwind, but something caught his eye as soon as he went around. He noticed that behind the large lacrima was Ultear and she was unconscious and tied up and had some vines attached that drained her Magic to power the thing alone.

Nic was more than shocked. He remembered Kecleon reporting her seeing Ultear, but didn't except to see her like this. Normally, Nic would feel awkward around Ultear, but she was being used and held captive. Nic didn't waste any time. "Erza, keep him busy! I'm going to stop this thing by the source!" He shouted. Erza turned around and tried to see what Nic meant. She peered behind the pink lacrima and found Ultear. Nic was going to save Ultear.

The thought of Ultear was almost too much for Erza to bear. For one thing, she was flirty with Nic back when they were on trial, secondly, she never had a good feeling about her to begin with. Seeing her like this was making her feeling somewhat guilty though, and she wasn't one to abandon those in need. Erza allowed Nic to do his part while she stalled and tried to stop Riftalla.

Riftala saw Nic going for Ultear and blew it off. "Heh, like I wasn't one to anticipate such a thing." He then resumed his quarrel with Erza and she flew about trying to evade the small explosions.

With Nic, he fully went around the large lacrima and was making his way towards a trapped and helpless Ultear. 'Hang on, I'm almost there.'

He was about to use Wing Attack to cut off the wiring, but then something swift caught him off guard and he flew back a few feet. The fast moving figure then landed in front of him and snarled.

Nic slumped forward. "Again? Seriously?"

It was the humanoid wolf, and it wanted to make Nic perish from earlier. The beast lunged forward and Nic flew up fast into the air thanks to Tailwind. He did a mid-air shift into his Dread Plate Form and went hurling downwards towards the monster. The beast pounced and had a claw out, ready to gut him upon impact. "Foul Play!" Nic shouted. He grabbed the claw in time, turned in the air and hurled the wolf from where it came from. It crashed hard and created a crater.

Nic landed safely and got into a more defensive stance as he awaited for the wolf to strike back.

With Erza, she had been trying to avoid the continuous assault of explosions all about and had difficulty focusing to aim an attack while doing so. She flew about above and about and was able to evade the explosions thanks to Tailwind, but the window was closing for her opportunity to attack. She only had so much time before Tailwind would end, thirty seconds give or take.

She descended and went at Riftalla from an upward behind angle. She made a battle cry as she got a sword ready. Riftalla held out a hand and trued to distort her sword, but Erza was swinging at an angle and he couldn't get a clear lock.

"Moon Flash!" Erza then rushed at him and slashed in a cross pattern with major force. The attack sailed and crashed into him with such intensity that there was a small explosion of white upon impact. Erza flew back to see what kind of damage was done.

She was annoyed that Riftalla was still standing, even after that. His durability was rather high if he could barely be scratched from that. Still, he gritted his teeth and clenched his torso.

"Okay, that one had some bite to it…BUT NOT ENOUGH!" He extended both hands and this time the markings on his hands lit up. The explosions this time were double in size when the air distorted, forcing Erza to take dire measures when she needed to evade the attacks.

Erza flew to the ground and landed softly. "Requip!" She then lit up and she was shown to have requipped into her Flight Armor. She could possibly get a few good hits in if possible, but his power boost was something to take note of. She readied a summoned sword and started dashing like crazy.

Back with Nic, I guess you could say it was hand-to-claw combat sort of speak. The beast was keeping up with an onslaught of slashes as to where Nic was continuously evading and having little room to counter. As the beast swiped across with its right arm, Nic ducked and did a Night Slash across its abdomen. The beast was startled and stepped back, giving Nic enough room to quickly strike with a Dark Pulse in less than two seconds. The monster howled as it jumped and flipped back and landed with its claws dug into the ground.

"Alright pooch, time for you to heel!" Nic shouted. The monster's only response was it opening its mouth and unleashing a sonic howl at him. The attack rippled and caused the earth around the sonic wave to shatter. Nic had to counter quickly. "Night Daze!" Nic's eyes lit up and his body was surrounded in a crimson aura. The aura around his arms thickened when risen and unleashed a force field of pink and crimson upon slamming them to the ground.

The two menacing attacks collided and strong winds blew about everywhere. Nic covered up as the winds and the small explosion was shoving him back. The wolf itself was gripping to the ground to avoid being shoved back. These powerful winds and small explosion even goy noticed by Erza and Riftalla, to see what was going on. The cables and vines that hooked up Ultear to the lacrima were all vaporized from being in the middle of the attack; thankfully, Ultear was out of range to not get swallowed up by the explosion.

Riftalla sneered and growled when the lacrima's power source was detached and Erza looked back to see that this was her opportunity to strike. She turned and dashed at him while he was looking away, causing him to flinch when she was two meters in front of him.

"Sonic Claw!" She shouted. She then slashed at him at high speed in every direction possible. It all happened so fast that his Spacial Curse couldn't keep up even if he tried. He yelped as he got to a knee and turned to look at Erza. She held a sword to his face. "Do you concede?"

He only grinned as he took note of her not moving. He then aimed his Spacial Curse and used it to distort the space around her legs. Erza screamed as her legs felt as though they were twisting and being torn apart from her.

"Ha! Looks like I got ya-!" He was cut off when the humanoid wolf monster was surprisingly send flying into him. He tumbled and crashed into the ground as did the wolf and Erza's legs were relieved from the distortion. She knelt down and clenched her legs. Nic came by just in time with a now free Ultear, yet she was still unconscious.

"Nic, how did you…?" Erza was shocked at how Nic was able to stop him.

Nic explained it as bluntly as he could. "Easy, when he's using his powers, he can only do either the distortion or explosions, he can't do both at the same time. He's open when he tried to unleash his powers because he can only focus on one space."

Erza was stunned to hear Nic's explanation. He was indeed perceptive. Nic set down Ultear and reached a hand out to assist in Erza. She grabbed his hand and was helped up. Though it was a little touching moment, considering they both were staring at each other for two seconds, they both turned and saw the two enemies getting back to their feet.

"Okay, time to finish this." Nic said. Erza nodded in agreement.

The two were about to launch a double attack, but they then felt the entire place shake and rumble. The ground was vibrating like crazy and their feet were beginning to quake and lose balance.

"Wh-what's happening?!" Nic shouted. Everyone there turned to see that the lacrima was now glowing just a little bit brighter and was beginning to slowly lift itself into the air. They all saw the lacrima slowly rising and started to break through the ceiling. The ceiling was starting to quake and was beginning to break apart as the lacrima was breaking through to the outside.

Nic quickly turned to Erza after he grabbed Ultear. "Quick, let's move!" Erza requipped to her Heart Kreuz and they began to make way towards the exit while Riftalla was chuckling and laughing. He then distorted himself and made way outside to the surface. The wolf creature scaled the walls and barely made it to the top with his gripping capabilities.

Nic and Erza both managed to make it to the surface after five minutes of running down the long tunnel they came from. They ran along the alley and Ultear was moaning, signaling that she was coming around. Nic turned his gaze to see Ultear starting to slowly open her eyes over his shoulder. He and Erza both stopped and saw Ultear finally coming around.

"…Unnngh…w-what the…what happened…?" She muttered. Nic turned to Erza with a confused look.

"I don't think she should be moving around much. Her Magic was depleted." He said. Erza agreed and Nic had set Ultear down, making her sit next to a corner of a street. She turned with her eyes open to see Nic and Erza.

"Oh, Nic! What are you doing here?" She asked. Nic got up to his feet and looked up to where the big lacrima was.

"No time for chit-chat! Stay here! Erza, let's go kick some ass!" He said. He and the Requip Mage then made way to the direction where they see the giant dark pink lacrima floating in the sky. Ultear looked on with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, daring now are we?"

Eighty three seconds later…

Nic and Erza both stopped once they were at the site. The large dark pink lacrima was floating about, high in the sky and glowing brightly.

"What's it doing?" Erza asked.

"I think it might be close to exploding." Nic assumed.

"That's right!" They heard a voice that was Riftalla. He reappeared in front of them through distorting the space. He laughed heinously and he grinned. "This bomb has got seven minutes left. There's no way you can save yourselves now!"

Nic was then going to use a Dark Pulse, but the humanoid wolf appeared out of the blue and tried slashing at Nic. Nic and Erza both leaped away to keep their distance and evade the onslaught of slashing aimed specifically at Nic. Nic back stepped and crouched for a Sucker Punch that landed successfully and made the beast crash onto its back.

Riftalla held out his hand and then the air in front of Nic exploded. Nic yelped and crashed onto his back and tumbled onto his stomach.

"Nic!" Erza shouted.

"Don't think I forgot about you!" Riftalla shifted his arm and aimed the distorted explosions at Erza. Erza had to leap back and zigzag to evade the oncoming explosions. The man laughed as he then extended both hands and made the area that Nic and Erza were in implode. The result was a rather large explosion that send them both soaring into the air. Erza yelped as Nic grunted loudly. He didn't even have time to register the wolf jumping up from behind and giving him a harsh kick to his side. Nic's body rattled as he crashed into the pavement and tumbled towards Riftalla as Erza fell and barely landed on her feet, exhausted.