357. Against The King

Ben's battle against Acnologia continues and it becomes a real spectacle now. They are exchanging attack after attack that shakes their surroundings. The power boost that Ben gets has increased his chance against Acnologia.

Acnologia has difficulties trying to hit Ben who moves around so fast. None of his magical or physical attacks hit Ben because he can't match Ben's speed. He can sense Ben's magic power, but he can't follow Ben's movements that look like flashes to him.

On another hand, Ben has difficulties dealing damage on Acnologia. His attacks always land on the Black Dragon, but he can't deal enough damage. Acnologia's magic resistance is very high, so even Ben's strong attacks don't give significant damage to Acnologia.

But instead of increasing his power, Ben is reducing it now. He just focuses on attacking as much and as fast as possible. Ben is trying to find Acnologia's weaknesses using these weak attacks.

He is throwing baseball-sized sun balls while moving around Acnologia. The sun balls explode upon contact and they are strong enough to gravely injure most Mages. But for Acnologia, they are just annoying attacks.

Even so, he still gets damaged no matter how small it is. The damage isn't significant, but he still receives it. Also, as he receives more attacks, the damage is stacking and it gives Ben the opportunity to find his weaknesses.

While the clash goes on, 2 individuals arrive on the cube below the battle of the 2 monsters. Gajeel & Lily arrive after they stupidly joined the airship on its way to Magnolia. They didn't realize that the other Dragon Slayers stayed behind, so they went back and have just arrived.

"SALAMANDER, HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME THERE? YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD ME IF YOU WERE STAYING," shouts Gajeel angrily, but no one answers him.

"Oi, are you okay?" asks Gajeel worriedly.

"...zing," says Natsu weakly.

"Huh? What are you-?" asks Gajeel.

"Amazing, he is very different from the last time we saw him. How could a human has that much power?" asks Sting.

"Is that power even possible to achieve?" asks Rogue too.

"It is possible, that's what Ben always said. If you want to know, then ask him. He will teach you everything you need to become that strong. But I'll tell you first that so far, no one can follow his way to get strong. Everyone gave up in a rather short time. Even Erza could only last for a month. All of us could only do the training that has been toned down many times," says Gray while still watching the fight in the sky.

"You will think that you'd die every time you train, since the first day," says Gajeel who now also watches the fight.

"That much?" asks Sting in surprise.

"Yeah, that much. Anyway, why're you guys just watching and not helping him instead?" asks Gajeel.

"Do you think we can even get into that?" asks Gray.

Gajeel looks for a moment before saying, "No, we will just disrupt him."

"That's right. But we need to stay vigilant all the time. Ben said that he isn't confident he could protect us, so we need to protect ourselves," says Gray.

"What about the fight? Has he said anything about his winning chance?" asks Gajeel.

"No, but from his expression, he isn't confident to win this battle," says Gray with a serious expression.

"That's not unexpected. Then we need to be ready to help anytime," says Gajeel.

They continue to watch the battle that can crush them anytime if they enter the fray.

'The damage on the wings and inner neck seems to be higher. But the easiest to damage is still the wings. They're thin, wide, and very important for a Dragon to fly,' thinks Ben while grinning.

Ben moves quite far from Acnologia and spreads his arms while floating. His magic power spikes as 2 big black-gold-red magic circles appear on his left & right. Acnologia senses the massive magic power on the magic circles, so he prepares a Dragon's Roar as a counter.

The first to execute his attack is Acnologia who shoots a massive blue Dragon's Roar at Ben. But Ben is still calm and he watches as the blue blast moves toward him. On his sides, the magic circles have turned into a pair of massive & long black-gold-red solar energy spears.

"Great Slayer Art: Spears of Heaven!" chants Ben as he swings his hands forward.

The 2 spears get shot forward and they move right beside the massive blue blast while spinning. Ben flashes down immediately to evade the Dragon's Roar. But because he evades it, the Dragon Roars destroy a massive mountain and a lake in its path.

It's not a problem though because no one lives there. So Ben ignores it and keeps looking at his magic spears that fly very fast toward Acnologia who realizes the spears too late because his sight is obstructed by his Dragon's Roar.

The spears hit Acnologia's wings and a pair of massive explosions happen. They engulf Acnologia's whole body because each explosion is bigger than Acnologia. The ones below wonder if it's working, but Ben's face says otherwise.

"What a tough bastard," says Ben while getting ready again.

The explosion smoke suddenly disappears because of a strong gust of wind. Acnologia flaps his wings and disperses the smoke around him. He still has his wings, but both his wings are damaged.

Acnologia's wings which look like bird wings with big feather-like scales have lost some of those. The rest of the feathery scales are burnt and chipped. But even those damaged wings are still able to support his flight and even created that strong gust of wind.

Acnologia is looking at Ben with angry red eyes now. He roars angrily before flying towards Ben while sucking the magic power in the air. It's been a long time since he gets injured like this, so this really hurt his pride.

Compared to Acnologia who is still very lively because of his rage despite the injuries to his wings, Ben isn't looking good now. That attack used a lot of his magic power and he can't replenish it because it's night, so there's no sunlight, his main source of energy.

Ben only has half of his initial magic power now because he has used it a lot before. So now he needs to be extra careful in choosing his attacks because he can't afford to run out of magic power. If that happens, he won't just get himself killed, but other people too.

So Ben chooses to not fight Acnologia head-on until he finds a chance. He moves around Acnologia at a very high speed at a very close distance. Ben is taunting Acnologia by moving so close as if saying that Acnologia can't catch him even if he is this close.

"What's wrong, blackie? You can't catch me?" asks Ben mockingly as he floats in front of Acnologia's right eye.

Acnologia roars angrily before trying to bite Ben, but Ben escapes in the nick of time. His speed is his only advantage against Acnologia, so he needs to use it very well. Besides, this is his chance because Acnologia is blinded by rage now.

He doesn't know if he can tire Acnologia, but it's worth a try. At least he can stall time while finding a way to give lethal damage to Acnologia. But it will be difficult for a while because Acnologia covers his whole body with magic power after Ben damages his wings.

Then suddenly, Acnologia stops trying to attack Ben and flies higher. Ben doesn't know what he's trying to do, but it won't be good. So he gets ready to face anything that Acnologia will make. Then he sees numerous blue light spots above Acnologia.

"DAMN!" shouts Ben with widened eyes.

"DIE, YOU DAMN HUMANS! ETERNAL FLARE!" shouts Acnologia before the blue light spots shoot down.

Ben immediately flashes toward the cube where his friends are. The Mages are surprised and they make protections using their magic. Ben arrives above them and creates a massive spinning shield made of his 3 types of solar energy.

Acnologia's attacks hit everything on the ground and the cube is destroyed. Ben's shield also gets hit and it gets the most hits because Acnologia is aiming at him. The shield gets damaged many times but Ben keeps reforming it and it costs him a lot of magic power.

Ben grits his teeth as he tries to maintain his ultimate solar shield. Blood comes out of his mouth & nose as he tries to keep the shield intact. Some bits of Acnologia's destroyed attacks pass through his shield and hits his body, damaging him even more.

His friends are helping him to block the attacks, but their power isn't sufficient. Now they realize how big of a burden they actually are. They all have the same thinking, if only they are stronger. Regret always comes late.

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