Gray and Natsu were at first a bit surprised at the fact that Fukuro was able to withstand these attacks without receiving major injuries.
However, that was quickly replaced by a new feeling, motivation.
Natsu walked forward, while his whole body got covered in flames.
But not any flames, but the pride of every fire dragon slayer, the flames of emotion.
"Step back Gray, I will take care of him." Natsu with such a serious tone that startled not only Gray but also Zeldaris and Aversia.
"Are you crazy, why should I give you all of the glory?" Gray answered with the usual banter that he and Natsu had.
"Because there is something that I have to prove to myself, and this is the perfect opportunity." Natsu said while continuing to walk toward Fukuro, who in turn was carefully observing and studying Natsu.
Gray looked at Natsu for a few seconds, without saying anything, before he sighed and said, "Fine, go ahead. But don´t think that I will save you when you can´t manage him."
Natsu didn´t answer and simply smiled.
"Huho Good, I will start with you, Salamander. This warrior of justice will give you your just punishment." Fukuro said while activating his jet pack.
(AN: For some reason it just makes a lot of fun writing this giant hypocrite.)
Fukuro flew into the sky, much quicker than before.
Natsu tried to keep up with Fukuro´s speed and keep his eyes on him, but Fukuro changed his direction in the air way to abruptly, making it impossible for Natsu to keep up with him.
So, Natsu changed his approach and closed his eyes and concentrated on his other senses.
Fukuro continued to fly over the island while suddenly changing his direction for half a minute, before flying downward, right above Natsu.
Fukuro punched toward Natsu´s head, but Natsu reacted in time and just barley dodged the attack.
However, Natsu was also now in the position where he could counterattack.
"[Fire Dragon´s Iron Fist]" Natsu yelled as he punched out with his blazing fist and this time, he hit Fukuro right in the head, sending the assassin flying.
But Natsu was not done, he chased after Fukuro, by sending his flaming body flying toward Fukuro.
"[Fire Dragon´s Sword Horn]"
Natsu hit, the still flying, Fukuro with a heavy headbutt into the stomach.
Natsu then spread his arms and concentrated his flames on them, they then took on the rough form of wings.
He then crossed his arms before Fukuro and slashed out, sending Fukuro flying yet again, while also burning him down to the bones.
"[Fire Dragon´s Wing Attack]"
Natsu landed heavily on the ground and begun to roll around.
When he finally stopped, he quickly stood up and looked at Fukuro, who was lying on the ground but was also trying to stand up.
Fukuro´s chest had a cross shaped burn mark and his body was severely burned in several places.
Seeing that his opponent was still not finished Natsu set his body yet again ablaze and inhaled.
Natsu leaned backwards while inhaling and even inhaled the fires that covered his body.
A giant amount of magic power was being concentrated inside Natsu´s mouth.
"[Fire Dragon´s ROAR!!!]"
Natsu released a giant torrent of flames, which were burning everything in their way into ashes.
And like a giant wave, they came crushing down onto Fukuro.
The heat and magic power were much stronger than Natsu´s normal roar.
Gray and Happy could only stare in disbelieve at the sea of flames and their destructive force.
Zeldaris and Aversia on the other hand, were even more surprised by this.
The two half dragons knew Natsu´s capabilities better than anyone else, probably even better than Natsu himself.
Natsu shouldn´t be able to create flames with such heat and strength, and jet he did.
As for Fukuro, he had been burned to a crisp and was lying on the ground, no one was sure if he was still alive.
But the two half dragons didn´t had the time to ponder upon such things for a long time, because they heard on the second island how Lucy summoned Aquarius.
As for Natsu he had spent most of his magic power and had trouble to even keep standing.
While all of this happened stared Ikagura and Erza at each other.
The armor of rocks still slowly falling off from Erza, revealing a brass-colored armor beneath it.
Unlike a good amount of Erza´s armors, this one covered her entire body.
The shoulder plates were made out of jade and had the guild emblem carved into them.
And right between the breast plate was a symbol of two intertwined dragons, one black, one white.
This was Vulcan´s personal emblem and every single one of Vulcan´s creations had this symbol.
"So, I can assume that this your armor´s true form?" Ikagura asked, with a sharp glint in her eyes.
"Yeah, this is the true form of the Earth Empress Armor. What you saw before was one of the abilities of the armor, called Rock Armor. It´s effect increases the defense of the armor drastically, but of course comes with a few downsides." Erza said while beginning to rotate her brass-colored war hammer.
Ikagura could feel the magic power that was building up inside the weapon and prepared herself for anything that might be unleashed against her.
"The first of course the drop in speed and the second one is that most of the magic power will be used for the defense, meaning that it´s attack power is abysmal. [ERUPTION]"
Erza swung her hammer onto the ground and instantly all the alarm bells inside Ikagura rang out.
Even the instincts of Zeldaris and Aversia were telling them that the next attack was not simple at all.
The two half dragons jumped into the air and hovered above the small island at a height of around five meters, and that not to late, because as Erza´s hammer hit the earth, massive earth spikes came out of the earth and covered the entire island and beyond it.
These spikes were more than three meters tall and the upper half of them was glowing red.
There were even some that stuck out of the water, and some had even reached the other islands.
Zeldaris and Aversia had dropped their jaw at the sight.
Erza on the other hand, slowly lifted her hammer, the head of the hammer was slowly being covered by runes and in the middle of both sides was the symbol of a mountain.
She had now activated the full power of her armor and her weapon and was practically radiating with magic power.
Ikagura on the other hand grew with every moment more excited, it had been years since she had a good fight like this, and it looked like it was about to get even better.
However, her excitement was stopped after seeing that Erza changed into a different armor, or better said outfit.
(AN: We all know what happens next and you are not wrong. But I need to do it for character development and to show my second and most important gift for Erza. Muahahahaha)
The outfit consisted of a white sarashi round the upper chest and a red hakama with a gold flame-like pattern at the bottom with black highlights, tied by white strings and no barefooted.
Erza's hair was tied up in a high tail at the back by a green headband.
"[Clear Heart Clothing]" Erza said after reequipping into this outfit.
"Is this a joke?" Ikagura asked, anger and mockery filling her voice.
"No, not at all. You see, I am not strong. I have been running away for eight long years and hid my heart inside my armor."
"Are… Are you trying to tell me your live story, because if so, then I am not interested." Ikagura said with a look that just said, what the fuck is happening here.
Erza on the other hand blushed for a moment before saying, "Fine then, all I wanted to say is that I was running away from everything and that I was still the frightened and scared little girl and that I only now realized how god damn foolish I was and that I would now try to move forward, starting with defeating you. But no, you don´t want to hear it, so let´s just go."
"Now that´s more like it!"
Erza summoned a sheathed katana; the blade and the sheath were covered by multiple chains.
Until now, it was impossible for Erza to pull the blade out, but know she had the feeling that she will be able to pull it out.
Erza grabbed the handle and injected her magic power into the blade and like a miracle the chains begun to move like snakes and moved down from the blade.
Not stopping to ponder about the moving chains, Erza pulled out the sword out of its scabbard and as she did, the sword seemed to tremble in excitement.
The blade was a bit longer than your standard katana, also a dragon was engraved into the blade and took up almost all of the space.
Beneath that dragon was an emblem, the upper halve of a dragon that was holding a shield with its claws.
This was the emblem of the kingdom of Dragnof and the emblem of the royal family of Dragnof.
The handle was normal, except for the two dragons that were on it and looked like as if they were circling around the blade in the middle.
"BLADE OF DRAGNOF!!!" Erza yelled the name of the sword and a slight but yet strange, blue air current formed around the sword.
As Ikagura saw the blade, her instincts told her that she needed to end this fight now.
So, she took her sword drawing stance and run toward Erza, this time completely and utterly serious and ready to slice her into many pieces.
Erza also readied her sword and rushed toward Ikagura, she pumped increasingly more magic into the blade, and as she did, the strength of the air current around the sword increased in speed and strength.
And to top it all off, it seemed like the dragon on the blade begun to move as well, although only a bit and very slowly.
As the two swordswomen were approaching each other they slashed out once and past each other and came to a stand shortly after.
A small cut appeared on Erza´s stomach, while Ikagura was cut deeply from her right shoulder to her left hip.
"Im… Impossible, I have never lost." Ikagura said, not believing what happened.
"How? How, did this happen?" she asked Erza.
Erza sighed before saying, "If you had let me finish, then you might have understood, but you didn´t want to listen, so I won´t tell you. Your own fault."
Erza begun to walk away, but quickly noticed that she had lost all power in her body and begun to fall to the ground.
But before she could hit the ground, someone caught her.
"Whoops, don´t worry I got you." Said Zeldaris as he caught Erza in his hands and carried her like a princess.
"Thanks, I don´t understand why I lost my strength like that." Erza said while trying to move her arm, which was quite hard for her.
"Hahaha, I would be surprised if you had been ok after using that sword for the first time since getting it. If the old man calls it his masterpiece of all time, then that means something. And although Ave and I don´t know much about the sword and what it is capable of, I would say that it had still many secrets that you need to discover, but you should ask him yourself, since it seems like pulling it out of its scabbard was a test for you, or something like that." Zeldaris said while laughing.
Zeldaris gently put Erza down and placed her against one of the spikes.
Zeldaris then looked around, to make sure that everyone was ok.
Gray and Happy were helping Natsu to move, while Gray was teasing Natsu a bit.
Aquarius was giving her usual rant after being summoned, so, all in all everything was good.
There was only one thing left, waiting for the blast that would destroy that blasted tower and sent that insane idiot into hell.