Crystal Beasts

"Huh…" Gajeel responded. As he got closer, he saw the insignia on Meliodas's arm.

"Oh you're from the guild huh. Well whatever." Gajeel turned and faced the two councilmen. He reached into his shirt and pulled out a job flyer. "I'm here for the monster extermination quest."

The councilmen both looked at the flyer and nodded at each other. "Very well you may proceed."

"Actually, I'm with him!" Meliodas quickly added, seeing his chance to get in the mine.

Gajeel turned around and gave him a mean look. He approached Meliodas and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Look, I'm not here to be all buddy buddy with Fairy Tail. I need some money and I found this mission so I'm doing it, that's all there is to it." Gajeel responded. He turned around and was about to walk into the mine when Meliodas put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey if you help me out here, I'll let you eat this sword!" Meliodas whispered, pointing to the broken iron sword he still had on his back. He had remembered when he first saw Gajeel, he ate his spoon.

"I don't want to eat your shitty sword!" Gajeel retorted.

Meliodas continued trying to persuade Gajeel.

"Okay okay. Just help me get in. I won't bother you once we are inside and we'll go our separate ways. I'll throw in a little money too."

Gajeel shook his head and sighed. He walked up to the councilmen.

"This guy's with me. We're from the same guild."

Meliodas showed the two councilmen his Fairy Tail insignia and they both nodded.

"Very well, you both may enter." They said. "However, you are not to go beyond the yellow tape. Do what you need to do then get out."

"Yeah yeah." Gajeel replied. Both he and Meliodas walked into the mine as the guards let them through.

Meliodas and Gajeel walked down a long, descending tunnel as they entered the mine. The line was lit up with lacrima mounted to the walls.

The two of them walked in silence until they reached a point where the path branches. To the left, the path was clear, but to the right, it was sectioned off with yellow tape.

"I think this is where we part ways. Good luck." Meliodas said as he approached the yellow tape on the right path.

"Tch. Do what you want." Gajeel replied as he continued walking down the left path. Meliodas lifted the tape and went through it. As Meliodas continued going down the shaft, it became darker as there were less lacrima lighting the path. A high pitched screech echoed through the corridor as Meliodas walked down. With blinding speed, a large beast flew at Meliodas.

Meliodas reacted in time and caught the beast by the neck. The beast was four feet tall and had a darkish purple leathery feeling skin. It's arms were connected to its wings and it had red crystals jutting out from its body. As Meliodas held the beast, it struggled to move in his grasp and it let out a deafening screech.

From the darkness in front of Meliodas, two more figures rushed him with blinding speed. Meliodas quickly jumped into the air, grabbing one of them with his free hand and kicking down on the other one with his right foot.

'What are these things?' Meliodas thought as he squeezed their necks until they were unconscious and left them lying on the ground. Meliodas shrugged his shoulders and continued walking down the mineshaft.

Eventually the lacrima stopped, and it became pitch black. Meliodas continued forward until he saw the cave begin to light up with a red glow. The walls of the cave began to fill with red, glowing crystals, until the corridor opened up into an enormous clearing. Meliodas looked around in awe of what he was seeing. The clearing was lit up dimly by glowing red crystals, giving off enough light that he could see around him. There were several more of those strange flying creatures he fought flying in circles high above him, at least twenty meters in the air.

He continued encountering a large amount of the strange beasts as he traveled further into the mine. The crystal's also had a purer glow as he traveled further down. Meliodas with his limited blacksmithing and appraisal skills knew the best stuff would be at the bottom. 'Only the best for my sword.' Meliodas thought as he continued down. Eventually he reached a point and stopped to take a look around.

'Just how far did I go down?' Meliodas thought as he kept observing his surroundings. Coming from the high ceiling of the cave, was a waterfall, rushing down to a small lake below. In the middle of the lake, was a giant red crystal in the center of an island. Around the crystal, were several small turtle-like creatures swimming in the water. Meliodas looked curiously at the large crystal in the middle. Unlike the other crystals on his way over, this one had the brightest glow. It almost lit up the entire room with its gleam. 'That must be the one.' Meliodas thought.

Meliodas's slow walk turned into running as he prepared to leap over the water to the island. He pushed off with his legs just before he reached the water and easily jumped across, landing right in front of the large red crystal. As he stood in front of the crystal, he could feel his magic slowly being drained. ' It's draining my magic, just by being in its vicinity. This is definitely it.'

Meliodas readied himself to punch a large portion of the crystal to carry back when the water behind him suddenly erupted.

He turned around, and in front of him, he saw a large behemoth of a monster towering over him. It appeared to be at least fifteen feet tall and had tough, purple skin. Around its shoulders, arms, and legs, were tufts of red fur. From its face, were two long, sharp tusks made of a red, crystal like material. It's eyes glowed red, like the crystals around the cave.

The monster roared at Meliodas, opening its gaping mouth wide and revealing its razor sharp teeth as it charged towards Meliodas, ready to ram Meliodas with its tusks.

Meliodas vanished suddenly, reappearing in front of the beast's torso below its open mouth. He delivered a swift punch to its gut, leaving a small indent in its body but not knocking it down.

The beast retaliated by swatting Meliodas away, sending him flying across the lake and skidding across the top of the water until Meliodas stopped at hard land again. Meliodas shook off the blow and wiped off blood dripping from his lip as he stood up again.

The monster let out another roar, a louder one that echoed across the entire cavern. More monsters burst forth from the ground beneath him. They appeared to be smaller versions of the large one that were around Meliodas's size. They all charged at him at once, with Meliodas blocking their attacks and swiftly counter attacking at the same time, knocking all of the small creatures back.

The large one jumped across the water with its gaping mouth open as it tried to land on Meliodas and devour him. Meliodas quickly jumped out of the way as the beast landed on the ground, forming a large crater as it shattered the earth beneath it.

"Hellblaze-" Meliodas started forming black fire in his hands but the moment he called it out, it vanished quickly. 'Damn...I'm too close to the crystal to use that magic…' Meliodas thought as he glanced over at the large anti link across the water.

The beast roared again, summoning more of its minions that climbed up from the ground that charged at Meliodas. Meliodas turned back to face the beast as he saw it and its minions approaching him.