Infamy has a Price

One of the worst nightmares of any man, is when the women of his life decided to conspire about him.

My worlds collided when Erza and Cana started to talk about me. I knew that they were talking about me, because Mira, that was the biggest gossiper and matchmaker of the Guild, commented to me that I was quite the lady killer when we were having a peaceful drink at the Guild. That comment made me raise an eyebrow, then I saw both of the women talking together, and Erza with a small shade of blush and one of the smoothies that I deliver to the Guild for her. That's when I knew I was doomed. She had become addicted to my strawberry smoothies, it was her weakness, along with strawberry cake and the snacks that the coffee shop I invested in had for their clientele.

I don't know when or how, but damnation was coming my way and I can not do anything to prevent it. Bloody hell, the smile of Mira; and her own little blush; only make me even more scared.

Unfortunately, they were ladies that I would cut my own arm than harm them in any way, shape, or form. On the other hand, perhaps Erza would benefit a little from Cana´s experience with men. Cana has had a lot of boyfriends all over Magnolia and Fiore, however, she has never found the one, so to speak, and her romances tended to be hot dates and little flings.

Sure enough, she lost her virginity with me; and technically I lost mine with hers; and we have been sex friends since puberty made our hormones go wild. But Cana and I have never had something similar to a usual couple relationship. We are both a bit too independent for that, and it did not help, that at the time, I passed more time out of Fiore than in the Guild. I was learning all I could from Earth Land and that means that I had to travel a lot.

On that particular morning the Guild was a bit more crowded than usual, with around thirty to forty mages around the hall and the Job board. Nab was there, at his usual post, speaking with Max about something that they were reading on the job leaflets that Mira and the Master had put that morning.

Thanks to the remnants of the reward for the Iceberg war; and my investments and inversions; I have a somehow comfortable economical security. Enough to cover the basics, like food and other life essentials, but not even close to cover some of the magical experimentation that I wanted to do.

I was a slayer. I was a mage that could kill demons and gods. Frankly, I only need to find an [Ice Dragon Slayer] lacryma to make the trifecta. Well, I was the Iceman now and my ice magic would always be important to me. Thanks to the shamans at Iceberg, molding ice was now nothing more than a mental exercise for me. I would have loved to show Ur how her theories and [Ice Make] could evolve into something that only depends on the imagination and magical power of the user. Sadly, Ur was forever entombed with Deliora. [Ice Shell], the spell that she used to save my life, sacrifice hers and turned her body and magic into an eternal prison for the demon.

That was the moment when Gray and I became one, and the agony of the boy was shared completely by me. Such good people like Ur did not deserve the hand that has been dealt, but Earth Land was not a fair place, and bad things happen to good people, like in any other place of the multiverse.

That being said, I was hoping that Erza would take me to an S-class job. Those were actually pretty rewarding, not even in jewels, but sometimes in loot and discoveries of ancient magics, lost relics and all other sweet loot that I know how to sell for a freaking pretty penny.

The only problem was that Erza and I were in a Team.

Team Natsu to be precise, I don't even know how the hell did the team ended up being called like that, but I had zero problems with it. My infamy as the Iceman will be a drag more an advantage for any job, and the Dragonslayer was relatively, positively, famous on Fiore.

Being in a Team was a novelty for me; I have been running solo, or with a partner or two at best for specific jobs, all my life. Only when Skoll and Hati came into the picture I accustomed to the idea of having a pack always covering my back. I spoiled the wolves rotten and I have zero shame in admitting it. I bought entire cattle carcasses for them, I run through the forest behind my home with them every morning as light training and groom their fantastic furs when we get back.

More often than not, the two wolves are in the back of the Guild, enjoying the nature there. I once caught, trough a window, the image of Skoll chasing a butterfly. On other occasions, they just get back into their rings and nap away the day. After the bullshit that we survived in Iceberg, I considered that a small vacation was called for.

They still accompanied me and my Team during our jobs to keep their skills sharp.

My Team consisted of Natsu, Happy, Erza, Lucy, and me.

Lucy; the blonde bombshell that joined our Guild practically a week before I arrived back from Iceberg; was a Celestial Spirit Mage, capable of summoning Celestial Spirits to aid her in combat and to perform all kind of tasks. I liked her attitude about the spirits, insisting that they were persons and friends, not tools. Natsu had a similar disposition with the blue flying cat that he and Lisanna hatched from an egg.

Curiously enough, I do remember how those two used to play newly weeds and Happy being their son. It was a good memory, one of the more happy times and the innocence of the youth. It almost ended in tragedy, if it wasn't for the intervention of Gildarts, but the birth of Happy was one of the best memories that the Guild have.

If I am not mistaken, Reedus made quite the exquisite painting about that particular moment. I really liked that painting.

Speaking of S-classes like Gildarts, I knew that the old man was on a hundred years quest, but it has been a while since Laxus or Mystogun appeared around the Guild Hall. I never had much of a conversation with Mystogun, but I did go for the Iceberg job after a very tense situation with Laxus. The blonde grandson of Makarov was a complete asshole. Since that bastard of his father, Ivan Dreyar, was kicked out of the Guild for being a monster in all but flesh, Laxus turned to the worst. Blabbing about strength above all and similar bullshits.

Power matters, whoever said otherwise is an idiot. But power alone is a hellish road with no return. I was hoping for the moment Laxus finally botched it up big enough to smash his head with Icebreaker and try set his brain cells straight before he got himself killed or worst, get some of the Thunder God tribe or other mages of Fairy Tail killed.

So far, I had no luck.

In the meantime, it was good to be back and the Guild and reconnect with the people that I have not seen for a year. Also, getting myself up to snuff in the latest magical theories and advances. Magic is a mystery, even after hundreds of years, but each day something new was discovered and I knew better than most, that knowledge is the greatest weapon ever.

"Hello Gray", spoke Lucy taking a seat at my side in the bar. "What are you reading?".

Lucy loved books, she and Levy were quite the bookworms, and when Levy told her that I was quite knowledgeable in runes and magical theory along with a very well-read person, Lucy started to talk me a lot more. She still had problems to do not stare at my abs though. It was one of her most peculiar traits and endearing traits, at last from my perspective.

Lucy was a gorgeous blonde, and contrary to the topic of all blondes being dumb, Lucy was a pretty well educated and knowledgeable individual. That made me think that Lucy comes from a rich/noble family and once she was old enough, she made a run from home. It was not all that uncommon. The thing is that Lucy flaunted her body with most of her clothes; and boy she was one gorgeous lass; but blushed and protested about perverts when someone stared at her sweet legs, barely hidden by her mini skirt.

"An old tome about magic circles", I smiled at her, closing the book and taking my [Gale-force reading glasses] down my nose. "I was brushing up the bases for a little project I had".

"Something I can help with?", she asked. Lucy may not be a strong fighter, but she was not to be underestimated. She is a clever girl with a nasty streak a mile wide.

"Well, how versed are you in magic wards?", I passed the book to her, so she could see what part I was reading.

"Not much I´m afraid", Lucy pouted. She took her own magical glasses from her pouch at her waist; at the side of her Golden Keys; and started to read. "Woah, this is some seriously advanced stuff Gray", she commented as she read the pages at high speed.

I left her to read in peace and store my glasses back into my [Re-Equip], Mira had left me a big cup of coffee nearby and I smiled in thanks to the white-haired angel of a barmaid that Fairy Tail has. Quite ironical considering that her magic was based on [Satan Soul], making her take over demons and such.

Sipping my coffee in peace with Lucy reading my book, I observed the rest of the Guild. It was not early morning, not late either, and the Guild had a lot of teams running around and preparing for their next job. Levy had already informed me that due to the sudden fall of grace of Phantom Lord, a lot of surrounding Guilds were taking in the jobs that the people would have given to Phantom Lord originally. That had provoked a lot of tension and underhanded tactics between Phantom Lord and the rest of the Legal Guilds.

Leaving apart my own personal feelings, Phantom Lord is a very big Guild, with branches all over Fiore. For a long time, Phantom Lord was the number one Guild of Fiore, respected by all. But when the children of Fairy Tail grew up, the fame of Fairy Tail sky-rocketed and Phantom Lord was no longer considered the undisputed number one Guild on Fiore. Makarov kicking Porla´s ass in front of the rest of the Guild Masters did not make Phantom Lord any good. From there on, Porla has grown increasingly bold in their aggressive stance towards all Guilds, and Fairy Tail in particular.

The second floor was devoid of people at the moment; it was for the S-class only, but on the main floor people were busy with their business. Team Shadow Gear was discussing a job in a town two days away from Magnolia. Miki and her Team Young Mega-death were very animatedly organizing a concert in a nearby town, Romeo, Natsu, and Happy were playing around and Macao had an eye on them.

Romeo had adopted Natsu as his older brother figure, carrying around a similar scarf than Natsu, and inheriting his father [Purple Flare] a very interesting style of [Fire Magic]. If I ever found Fire Dragon Lacryma of any kind, I may offer it to the kid and his father. However, I had to look deeper into the obscure secrets that the shamans of Iceberg told me about the real secrets of the Slayers magics.

All natural Slayers, those that inherit their powers through their masters, can, with time, transform into the very thing that they learned to slay. It had a horrid sense, what better to kill a dragon than another bloody dragon?. But all Slayers; natural ones, the ones with Lacryma is still an unknown as I have not to practiced any surgery in any of them to corroborate my theories; carried a seed within them. In time, that seed will grow to turn the mage into what they learned to slay.

My case was nightmarish enough, as I was the God and Devil Slayer, meaning that my "Demon Form", the apex of my Devil-Slayer magics, would turn me into a Demon, alas, the God-seed inside me was turning me into a demigod of sorts. The collision between the two had already started in Iceberg and I painfully slow down the process by almost mutilating myself. In the Temple of Ymir, they established the process, but all of us were on uncharted waters here.

Natsu has been a dragon slayer since he has memory, and leaving apart his teeth and some scales when his magic goes out of control, I have not yet seen any signs of his transformation into a Dragon. The bigger changes on myself would be my stature, my toned and perfectly muscular body, my red eyes, and my tattoo. I did not feel all that different mentally, despite all sources indicating that Devil Slayer magics ended up eroding the sanity of the user till a point on where they became Demons.

There are several other tending to their business in the Guild, and I had little need to intervene in anything. If I am asked, I would gladly help, that´s for sure, Guild business is my business. To be honest, I was enjoying this month of peace after the war, taking small jobs with Team Natsu, tending to my home and personal projects, dating the most gorgeous redhead of Earth Land.

Yep, life was good and that was precisely why I was already expecting the next crisis.

"This is really advanced stuff", told Lucy to me after taking down her own glasses and returning the book to me. "I never actually thought about magical circles like that, I thought it was just a matter of memorization and focusing magical power".

"Well, your Celestial Spirits works on different rules", I continued sipping my coffee in peace. "You are not usually casting magical circles when you prepare your spells, but keeping the basics fresh is always a good policy".

"These are basics?", giggled Lucy tapping the cover of the book. "I had problems understanding some of the stuff and you tell me that these are the basics".

"For rune wards and alchemy. Aye", I smiled at her leaving my empty cup of coffee over the bar counter. "Levy had me completely beaten in any [Letter Magic], except for [Futhark runes], and this book is a very good exposition about how to created runic magical circles".

"[Letter Magic]?". Asked Lucy. For her, a lot of magic in the Guild is completely new. My own Slayer status; so different from Natsu; had taken her a bit back but seeing me in action, and always covering her back during our jobs together, had made her less wary of my blackish ice.

Nodding in, I took out of my storage dimension; way slower than Erza, her talent was leagues above my own in that regard; a magical pen. A small pen of red color that had magic on it, so, whatever I wrote would attach itself to a surface, or even glow in mid-air for a long while until the magic faded.

I quickly wrote a couple of phrases in the common language of Fiore; that sounded curiously similar to Japanese despite the evident European influence in the world; then, I wrote under them the very same phrases in runes and set themselves inside a small magical circle.

"[Letter Magic] is incredibly varied", I explained to her who was attentively listening to my improvised lesson in magics.

"From just writing on thin air", I marked the phrases on the air, "to produce magical effects based on what we have written".

I tapped the magical circles and one turned into a small puff of red smoke and the other into a small storm cloud that tickled Lucy's skin making her giggle, before vanishing in thin air like the red smoke.

"Levy, for example, is a [Solid Script] mage, she writes something, let's say Iron, and the words would become heavy chunks of solid iron. Others, like me, used [Futhark runes] to create wards or temporarily enhance things or individuals".

"That´s incredibly useful", commented Lucy observing the magical circles that I had redrawn but without the inner phrase, making them empty. "But how come such varied magic is not all that used?. For what I can see the only limit in to be able to write".

"Good question, you are a clever girl", I praised her with a hum and she beamed at me. I was more than sure that most of the people only saw her as a blonde bimbo, but as much as I will admit that Lucy was hot as hell, I knew that there is a good brain under her golden hair.

"You told us once that you liked books a lot, right?", I asked back and she nodded. "Anyone that can write, can become a good writer as well?". That question made her blink and adopt a pensive gesture.

"Also, like in a lot of magics, your own magical reserves and the emotions that you pour into your spells can make a world of difference", added some extra requirements for being a good Letter mage, It was way harder than people believed. "The extra ingredient is knowledge and, well, your own mind".

Lucy observed at me confused, damn she could put the sexy innocent girl look like a pro, and she was doing it unconsciously.

"Tell me, Lucy, how do you say snow in Iceberg and Joya?". I would be very surprised if she actually knows the two idioms, I did because they were practically the same as the ones that they shared terminology from my original world.

"I do not speak Iceberg", she admitted, "but I knew some basic Joya, I was curious about the language".

"Good, wanting to learn is a very good trait". I draw another circle near to the ones that I already have in the air and set a completely different written word in the three of them.

"Now, if you see this", I pointed at the one with the word snow, as Fiore understood it, in the middle. "You would understand, but if you see this", I pointed out to the words of the other countries. "You will have no idea of what they are, that´s why Letter mages tended to be exceptional multilingual, as they have to learn a lot of words from all over the world to adapt their magics".

"Wow, I respect Levy´s brain a lot more now", the voice of Natsu sounded from under Lucy and the girl jumped almost two meters in the air due to the surprise.

Damn girl, a mini skirt and a very tight thong?. That combination could make any hot blooded man howl to the moon.

Lucy started to berate Natsu for being a pervert, and a moron, for scaring her like that. Chuckling I waved the circles out of existence, returning to the Ethernano in the air. Happy was already at the bar counter chewing on a fish, completely indifferent to the scolding that his partner was suffering at the hands of a scorned blonde.

"Professor Gray is at it again?". Teased me Mira taking my empty mug into the cleaner under the counter. "It´s been a while since I saw you help anyone with their magics, a lot of us owe you for helping us with our magic".

"Happy to help", I shrugged observing Erza and Cana for a second with a relaxed smile. Those two were something else.

"Lucy being quite charming also helps?". Mira mocked me with a raised eyebrow and I snorted.

"Aye, but you know that I had a thing for redheads, for a specific redhead with a fixation for Heart Kreuz´s weapons and armors, to be more precise", I laughed, leaning on the wall of my favorite corner of the bar. From that position, I can observe all the Guildhall, the door, and the stairs to the second floor.

"Cana is corrupting our poor knight", Mira chuckled seeing how Erza´s face was taking the same color as her hair. "At the beginning, Erza was not entirely sure about how to feel about you knocking boots with Cana, but now, she is listening to Cana´s words as if they were gospel".

"Goddammit Cana", I massaged the bridge of my nose.

It was not precisely a secret that Cana and I have, or better said had, a very intimate and physical relationship without being a couple in the usual sense. Between her drinking habit and her attitude towards life, I was not entirely sure that she will finally set up with anyone.

"Also...", Mira was acting unusually quiet and I was already warming ups the alert bells in my brain.

"It is true?", asked Mira and put her hands up, like she was measuring something, about a foot and half long space between them.

Again, God. Dammit. Cana.

"[Giant Magic] works on everything" I deadpanned at Mira.

Mira blinked, then her brain caught with the meaning of my words, her jaw almost hit the floor, blushed like a tomato and giggled a storm, in more or less that order, before twirling around with an embarrassed smile in her face and kept close to the two gossiping ladies.

One of the worst things of being completely immune to the cold is that I can not rest ice over my head to combat migraines. Mental note: double the amount of stress-reducing potions and remedies at home if this is going to be a usual occurrence.

"Icebrain, we had a job!", came the voice of Natsu, with Happy floating over him with one of the leaflets of the board.

"Run it by Erza first flamebutt", I replied bemusedly. "I am not going to gallivant around the deeper corners of a freaking mud lake to hunt a freaking blowfish and then, because you and your bleeding heart, help him to elope with a magical monster tuna".

There was a silence in the Guildhall, as everybody looked at me with confused expression and disbelief etched in their features.

"You believe that is weird even for us?", I grumbled to the entire Guild and then I shudder, "then just try to fucking image how the bachelor party was; believe me, the angelfish with a tutu, and the sturgeon stripper out of a five stories tall plankton cake were the stuff of nightmares".

I am sure that I was not the only one that seriously considered the idea of bleaching their brains after those particular images. I lived through them and I have seriously meditated the idea of getting cranial surgery to find the brain cells holding those memories and killing them for the sake of the rest of the brain.

"Come on!", whined Natsu. "That´s unfair, I picked up a great job and Dobon is a swell guy".

My deadpan at Natsu could have won a prize, and Happy promptly hide behind the head of his partner at my glare. Even Natsu coughed a bit uncomfortable for my stare.

"Fins-Fins lap dance", I said at him with a tone capable of drying the sea, remembering Natsu about the, oh so arousing, experience of having the aforementioned sturgeon stripper giving us a lap dance.

Natsu´s complexion turned into a shade of green, and even Happy was looking very uncomfortable with the memories that had resurfaced in his mind. When Happy no longer wants Fish, you know that something is not well at all.

"Erza, can we take this job?", Natsu walked at Erza who was smiling the entire time.

The lucky lass had a very entertaining bachelor party in a private hall that the family of the bride provided. She had a great time chatting with the other magical mermaids that came to visit her marrying friend, and enjoyed some of the greatest seafood ever.

It was bloody unfair.

The job was nothing out of the ordinary, we are supposed to transport a magical experimental device from one town to the other. According to the job description, a rival company has hired several thugs, and other unsavory elements, to get the prototype and register it under their name. Over the paper, it sounded like an easy job.

Team Natsu was ready to go by the next day and I found myself amused by Lucy and Natsu interactions. The blue-haired furball that accompanied Natsu everywhere loved to mess with Lucy, and the lass was so easy to rile up that I was not even a challenge. Erza scolded the idiot duo; Natsu and Happy; and have a serious talk with Lucy about her impulses and her indecency, it was even more amusing to watch as Lucy never did it on purpose but she ended up showing a good lot of skin several times.

On the fields, my Iceman persona tend to get the best of me, and I was way colder than usual, but never rude; well, except to Natsu, that as soon as he was bored by the travel, tried to rile me up for a fight and we ended up being smacked around by Erza and scolded for our lack of professionalism.

Business as usual for our team.

On the usual routines of our team, Lucy is the face of the Team; aye, she is a beautiful girl with a charming smile and a brain behind her brown eyes, she was perfect for the job; with me shadowing her and acting as a "bodyguard" of sorts. Erza and I took care of the jobs that require a stronger physical and magical presence, and Natsu acted as a scout of sorts with Happy allowing him to move fast whenever we needed them.

In combat, I started to take a more rear guard position. Erza and Natsu are front line juggernauts, but Lucy, still not as magically powerful as any of us, was not capable of following the rhythm of the others, even with the help of her Spirits. So, I started to act as a support, long-range mage, with an arsenal of ice magics and useful tricks to cover, support, and provide long range fire power.

Speaking of Spirits, Lucy loved Skoll and Hati. She lost no chance to jump at them and fluff all she wanted with the superb fur of the wolves. Petting the massive wolves, more than capable of snapping a bull in two in one bite, was one of her favorite pastimes. The two wolves melted under her attention, enjoying the belly rubs, the petting, and the scratching. It was hilarious to see.

Erza and I calculated that we will need about two to three days to complete the transporting job. That is, if we don't meet any real opposition. As we feared, two minutes after we left the building, a bunch of thugs jumped at us for it. Natsu and Happy kicked their asses without us even looking.

Next, came a Dark Guild mage. A poor sod that attacked Erza with some kind of dust based magic. Erza slashed him into a wall. Fortunately, I have advised the local Rune Knights to look out for sudden explosions, maniacal laughs, several destroyed buildings; the usual whenever Fairy Tail was involved. With my advice, they reached the beaten bodies that we were leaving behind and put them behind bars. At the same time, I told them who we were; I will be dammed if I do not collect any bounty that decided to fall in our laps. Jewels were jewels and magical research is bloody expensive.

Walking from town to town was not my favorite method of transportation, so, I "suggested" Happy to zip all protest and fly with Natsu, meanwhile Erza, Lucy and I will ride on Skoll and Hati from town to town. Thanks to the wolves, I was convinced that we would be in the city by the afternoon. With a bit of luck, another quick travel back to Magnolia in train, and by the morning of the next day we will be back at Fairy Tail, with some good jewels clicking in our pockets.

There is a common saying: Defying fate is a fool's errand.

In modern days, they call it Murphy´s Law. In resume, if something could go wrong, it would go wrong, and if you are foolish enough to tempt fate ever further, the universe will bitch slap you like you wouldn't believe. In this particular case, what happened was that the Dark Guild that has been hired to take the prototype from us, knew of the presence of Erza Scarlet, and they took measures against her. From a business point of view, I actually felt impressed. They made their homework, knew their opposition, and develop a plan that would grant them a chance of victory. I would have admired and applauded such dedication and professionalism.

However, they hurt Erza and that infuriated me.

They set up a trap on the roads, and we walked right into it. They camouflaged it with the help of an illusionist and activated a lacryma trap that drained our magical power and shocked us. Erza took the brunt of both, but they had not taken into account that I was there too and between all of our magical power combined, the lacrymas shattered unable to contain all that energy.

Six mages and four of us were already down for the count. The backlash of the shock and the drainage of almost all her magical power has stunned Erza, Natsu was not better and Happy and Lucy were down. Fortunately, when the bolts hit my pack, they returned to the rings, safe form the drainage and the shocking bolts.

In a second, they were back at my side, but I knew that their magical energy was not enough for a long fight.

"Natsu", I called him and the Dragon Slayer, barely able to stand, looked at me with defiance in his eyes. "Take them and get out of here".

"Bullshit", replied Natsu back at me, setting himself in a cloak of magic.

The six mages were covered in tunics with purple hoods of some sort, with a symbol that I did not recognize. I had not yet caught up with the latest Dark Guilds in the zone. I mean, with the Balam Alliance around, the only real players around where Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartarus. None of the clothes of these fuckers indicated belonging to any of those.

Two of the mages step ahead; one of them was quite short but I recognize her female form despite the tunics; they created big magical circles and a tsunami of acid and mud come our way. That was a killing strike. The mud would entrap us and the acid would turn us into a puddle. These people are professionals and that means that there was a lot of money involved.

[Frozen Aegis] raised from the ground and stopped the incoming tsunami before it could even hit us. And I had no doubt that it would have hit us, Natsu was not in any shape for his usual agile movements, and I was feeling sore all over. Bloody hell, that thing had drained me more than I would like to admit, later, I will collect the pieces and reverse-engineered it.

"Natsu, listen to me dammit, I need you to protect them", I pointed out to the unconscious ladies and cat behind us. With a wide gesture, from the walls of my defense, dozens of spikes surged and were launched at our enemies.

"Skoll and Hati could carry them, but they are as fucked up as we are", I grabbed Natsu´s shoulder and look him in the eyes. I could see the hurt and defiance in his eyes, he felt conflicted and I totally understood it.

"I will hold them off", I said and it was fact, increasing my pressure over Natsu´s shoulder before he could protest. "Get them to the city, get them to the hospital, and then get your flamebutt back here, I will leave some of them for you".

"It´s a promise", Natsu grabbed the wrist of my hand over his shoulder and I could read in his eyes that we both know that this was not going to be that freaking easy.

"Aye, now, Go!", I shouted at Natsu tossing him out of the way of a sudden spear that has pierced my wall.

Natsu and I shared a look and the fire dragon run with the wolves and the rest of our unconscious comrades.

Go, Natsu, go, let the devil do the devil´s work.

Several other lances came out of nowhere and pierced my wall, but those were not aiming anywhere, were just a volley of shots trying to hit anything in their way. Easily dodging the lances, I left my tattoo to grow and cover my entire arm, my fangs enlarged and I was slowly being covered in permafrost.

Taking the [Ice Make] stance, I created dozens of hammers and started to pummel anything in the road. A sudden outburst of acid and mud, along with a powerful shockwave of some kind, sent my creations flying away.

Acid and mud turned into a rain of projectiles in my general direction and I just calmly dodged the ones that put me at risk. Taking aim, I generated a black spear with my left hand and increasing my strength with my [Giant Magic] I sent the spear flying. A loud clang and a detonation erupted in the middle of the battlefield, making all of us jump backward for the sudden clash of powers.

Standing in the middle of the road, five of the attackers were preparing for the next clash. The only one that did not look even winded was the one in the center, bigger than the rest. The two elemental mages were on their knees and the other unknown had a lance and an ax on each hand. Then I realized that I have counted five.

The sudden explosion of pain in my ribs told me that the one that left, had managed to slip past my senses and stab me right in my side.

Growling like an animal and with the dagger still in my sides, my arm; already black and with dangerous nails instead of fingertips; grabbed her; the mysterious backstabber was a she, a dark-skinned, green-haired girl with natural red eyes; and put her in the ground quite violently.

My fist; covered in a layer of permafrost, making it look as if I was wearing fighting gloves of ice; descended upon her face. The fist punch shattered her nose, the next broke her lips, the next broke several of her teeth, her face was completely messed up, a mixture of blood, tears, and snot covered my fist and what once was her face.

With a grunt, I took the dagger at my sides; expanding my devil taint over the wound, and twirling it in a reverse hold, I stabbed the face of the girl, piercing so deep that I nailed her to the ground.

My sides were burning from the inside, as I suspected, the dagger was poisoned, and my demonic taint was fighting the effect of whatever was in the blade of the dagger. I was already very resistant to poison, but with my demonic taint working on it, only magical, or especially powerful poisons, had a chance against me.

As I was brutally dispatching the stabber, the rest of his comrades did not stay put; well, the taller one did stay put, the rest either made a step back or tried to attack me. The one with the ax was already charging but a ten meters long snake made of blackish ice appeared from the ground and he was trapped in the jaws of the serpent, landing somewhere in the forest and fighting there.

The one with the lance tossed it at me. A demonic arm if ice surged from my back and slapped the lance away.

Covering my wound with a layer of ice; bleeding was something that I could not tolerate at this moment; I eyed the five remaining. With a grunt, I stepped forward, leaving the nailed assassin behind and dissipating the demonic arm of my back.

"That was enough warm-up", I stretched my arms and thundered my neck. "Before I kill all of you, I had two questions".

"How amusing", came the voice of the taller of them. His accent was from Desierto?. How unusual. However, his tone spoke volumes of how little he saw me as a threat. The condescending tone oozed in his voice. "Tell us, little man, what are those questions?".

"To whom I will be sending your corpses and who has paid you for this hit?", my magic power was already purring in my veins, but I kept it quiet. I wanted these cretins to confide and end up like their comrade.

"Ah, little man, you are not entitled to the second answer", chuckled the tall man. "And about your first answer, I assume that after killing that little nuisance, I should have the same courtesy". The bored tone and indifferent tone of the man spoke volumes of how much did he valued his comrades and how much did he care about their well being.

"So", said the man very amused, "to whom should I sent you corpse?".

"Claim it first", I defied back and sent a veritable wave of ice monsters at them.

Trolls, ogres, Vulkan, wolves, bears, snakes, devils, I sent a horde of blackish ice monster over them.

The elementals of the group started to manifest several magical circles to summon their own spells to block the tide.

The one with the ax was still very busy with my snake construct, but just in case, five wolves surged from the broken remains of their fallen comrade and went into the forest.

The lancer engaged all monsters in close combat and I observed how good he was with his lance.

The tall man, and obviously the leader of the group, just stood in the middle of the path as if all of this was just boring for him. I can not make his expression under his hood, but his entire body language was enough to clue me that he was not impressed.

Constantly reinforcing the distractions; my army of ice was nothing more than that, distractions to allow me to focus on the most dangerous targets; I sent wave after wave of ice monsters at the mud and acid mage. Taking out the long-range mages would allow me to fight one of one with the lancer. Creating my own spear, I rode on the back of one of the wolves that were attacking the acid lady and jumped directly at the lancer.

The mage was strong enough to dispatch the enemies around him, but when I almost impale him, he managed to barely dodge the piercing strike and defend against the barrage of thrust that I quickly performed as soon as I landed on the ground. We started to block and counter, our spears clashing and deflecting thrust and stabs. I grunted as it was clear that the man was a better lancer than me.

Unfortunately for him, I was a very dirty fighter. In one of the thrusts that he made, I parried with my spear in a vertical position and froze all of his spear when it hit mine. With my superior strength, I was able to pull him close, with force enough behind the pull that he lost equilibrium and feel forward. With a right-hand uppercut, I punched with enough force to broke bones, I sent teeth and blood flying into the air. The punch had enough force to raise his body from the ground, at the peak of his flight, and when he started falling, I turned my left hand into a long claw, and bisected the lancer in two, splattering his innards all over the floor, and sending the two halves in opposite directions. It was a good thing that the blood froze in seconds due to the cold effect of my claws, otherwise, the blood would have splattered all over me.

With barely enough time to raise a shield, an acid rain fall over me, devouring part of my clothes and skin with frizzling sounds. My skin and flesh were corroded by that acid, it was very painful and I had to focus on freezing the acid before it ended up reaching my bone. Losing focus in my shield for a second, a mud boulder stomped my shield and slammed me into a tree.

Grunting, I got up from the tree crashing and observed what has sucker punched me. I really have to pay more attention to my surroundings. Whenever I go for the killing strike I tend to develop tunnel vision until my prey is torn to shreds.

The acid splash has been the last leg of the acid lady, my monsters had get her and in the last blast, she had sent a massive explosion of concentrated tears of her strongest acid before my ice beasts tore her apart. The sudden explosion took down most of my creations and that gave the mud mage enough space to boulder me into a tree.

The mud mage and I stared at each other. I was wounded, with entire spots of my skin charred and with frozen blood falling to the ground. Thanks to my devil taint, the poison of my ribs was not a problem, but I had to improvise a bandage with ice to keep the bleeding and the wound close. The black taint had covered my sides and a good chunk of my face.

The mud mage sent a landslide at me and I sent my own ice wave to it. The two clashed and fought for dominance. Over the top of the mud, several boulders covered in spikes appeared and fall over me. Creating two giant claws over my shoulders, I grabbed the spiked boulders that could hit me and toss them back. Neither of our walls has gained dominance over the other and that was convenient to me. Taking the [Ice Make] position, I created a flying eyeball, sharing the senses of my left eye on it and making it fly high in the sky.

Now I had an eye in the sky. Thanks to my claws I was able to keep my defenses up, boulders, spikes, mud buzz-saws, all kinds of weapons started to fall all over me, but none came even closer to hit me.

With the eye up, I saw the mud mage creating circle after circle of magical power and sent volley after volley of mud-based magics at me. Keeping a magical circle constantly up and running in front of him that I took it was for the mud landslide. Not that far from him, I saw the one with the ax, he has managed to destroy the snake with that ax of his, but the wolves have taken advantage of the opportunity and dealt a crippling strike, the man was bleeding and with an arm torn, he will die quickly.

Creating a chain with a hook, I sent it flying from my hand, grab the spear that has been abandoned after I killed his owner, and pull it to me. Grabbing the spear with my right hand, I infused a lot of my God-Slayer magics into the already magical artifact and with a lot of extra force thanks to my [Giant Magic] I tossed it with all I have into the colliding walls.

My ice wall collapsed, the spear punched through the mud landslide with easiness and before the mud mage could recover from the sudden lack of magical pressure over his construct, the lance that I have tossed vaporized his torso and froze his waist, head, and arms, just a second before they fell into the ground for the sudden absence of a torso to be attached.

Sighing, I stretched my arm a bit, and massaged my hand. I may have put a lot more strength into that attack that I though. That, or the poor fucker was not as resilient as me. I like to think that all my opponents are my equals at the bare minimum, which prevents me from falling into traps like pride and arrogance.

Speaking of which, I turned my head to the last assassin and raised an eyebrow about how he was done absolutely nothing to help his "comrades", or, well, take advantage of the constant barrage of attacks and join the fray, overwhelming me along with his friends. Instead, the man has been there, looking bored at how I dispatched the other five.

The sounds of flesh and bone that come from the forest indicated that aye, I had dispatched all five of them. Now I only had to do the same with the arrogant fucker that seemed to lead; in a very loosely manner; them and has not moved a bit during all the spectacle.

"So", I relaxed my shoulder blades, with the claws vanishing in Ethernano, "to whom I should send the corpses and who has paid you for this hit?". I repeated my questions to the tall man who laughed under his hood. That laugh contained the kind of despite for anything that it was not themselves that I would have normally attributed to demons. But it seems that demons did not have the monopoly of all that's wrong in the world.

"Little man", the tall man cleaned a laughing tear under his hood. "You are the funniest prey that I have being tasked to kill in a while".

Tossing the tunic and the hood out of his body, I found myself staring at a bloody giant.

The man was a head taller than me, easily into the seven-foot-tall and beyond, his body was made of pure muscle, his arms would have given an Alpha Vulkan envy and his torso, with muscles over muscles, was the size of a barrel. The man had black hair, combed backward, reaching his shoulders. His face was plain, with a big nose; with evident signs of being broken way too many times; and crude features. His brown skin and facial features were more than enough to reveal to me that he was a native from Desierto.

But the worst was his eyes, they were of a sick green that only promised pain and suffering, and how the owner of such eyes would only found that pain and suffering perfectly entertaining and amusing. This man was a complete psycho, and with this kind of person, there is nothing but a solution.

Rip and tear until the work is done.

The smile in the face of the man was more than enough to tell me that this arrogant bastard was confident in his ability to kill me, and he has already seen a lot of my magic.

We didn't say anything for a while, my face was devoid of any emotions and he was just smiling as if I was an amusing thing. Our magics started to crack when they collided, the man had a lot of magic, but I was barely faced by his attempt at intimidation. I have sense and slain the energies of a bloody god, nothing faced me much anymore.

We moved.

For a man so big, he was incredibly fast and when we collided, I discovered that he was stronger than me. However, he was also surprised about how well I could match against his strength. That must have been a surprise to him, accustomed to fighting people that were not even close to his physical strength.

We fight for a bit, exchanging punches and kicks, and I saw that the style of this man was completely unpredictable, worst of all, it was a style that I recognized. It was the Hand of the Snake, a quick, brutal, and swift style that imitates the speed and deadly attacks of a snake to deliver knife hand strikes; imitating the head of a snake. The style was based on deliver painful, if nor lethal, strikes to vital points of the body.

The only reason why I did not end up with a shattered throat quickly was that I knew the style and managed to deflect the strike in time; that did not help me, when the arm of the man slithered around mine, and cut a deep gash into my shoulder. Taking by surprise by the attack, I lost focus and the hands of the man fell over my chest, trying to stab through me side to side.

A sudden armor of ice blocked the biggest part of the twin strike, but the force was enough to shatter it and pierce an inch into my flesh before the inertia of the attack sent me flying backwards. I skidded several meters before I stop and surrounded myself with dozens of ice weapons flying around me.

The giant dark-skinned man did not take the weapons seriously, and pressed on his advantage. Thanks to his inhumane flexibility and stretching capabilities, the man moved through the weapons in an amazing display of combat abilities. But he was so focused on the flying weapons that he missed the bear traps under the floor. Unfortunately, the man was a veteran, and war wary of traps, and the bear traps only managed to wound her legs instead of snapping them into pieces.

My weapons had their own mind of sorts, and constantly get on the offensive, keeping the giant man; no longer smiling; on his toes and forcing him to be on the defensive and focusing on destroying my ice weapons before going after me again. Ice formed in the two holes that the bastard has done in my chest, I was hoping for my healing to do not leave a scar. I already have one from the time that I stabbed myself, and another from the dagger that the assassin girl stabbed me with. Fortunately, the symbol of Fairy Tail in my chest was untouched.

It was an easy task for the man to destroy my weapons, but at that time, I recovered from the impact and the wounds, and prepared to end this for good. The man either had stretching magic or magic based on snakes. Snakes are a common theme around Desierto, it was one of their sacred animals, so an assassins from there with snake-themed magic was almost a stereotype.

Extending my right hand, Icebreaker took form in a blink; contrary to other weapons that I had inside my [Re-equip], this weapon was an integral part of my God-slayer magics and it was bounded directly to my soul.

The hammer was different from the one that I had inherited from Ymir. I had engraved gold runes all over the bluish-white ice of the weapon. The runes were pure gold, mined with my own hands and melted with a mixture of metals, herbs, and my own blood to feed the magic. Icebreaker was now mine, a weapon bounded to me by blood and soul.

My other arm grew into black ice like demon claw, with sharp and brutal nails that were more than enough to cut anything unfortunate enough to be at their reach. It has been a while since I used this combination and I was already beyond the point of caring about anything that was not making this fucker suffer.

These idiots had hurt Erza, and for that, I will tear them to shreds, only the giant in front of me was presenting a bit more of resistance, but I was just a matter of time before I kill him.

The battle continued, we jump at each other but now, the giant was having difficulties to employ his style, as my entire body was cold to the point of hurt anything that touched me, and my black claw-like arm was covered in ice spikes that cut, rip, and froze anything that came close to them. The giant managed to cover his arms in layers of magical power, a good trick for the moment, but that would not prevent the constant cold that his flesh was suffering.

Each time the dark-skinned assassin breathed, he inhaled more and more cold ice, his breathing was growing difficult. The man was very conscious that I was keeping us in a bubble of cold, if he did not end quickly, or pulls something out of his sleeves to put and end to the battle, his lungs; or his body, I don't really care; is going to fall because of the freezing temperatures.

Snakes fear cold, and this one was not an exception to the rule, the cold made him slow, weakening and stiffening his muscles, unable to put his full power behind his strikes. It was not my case, and taking advantage of that, I pick a page of his book, trapped his arm with my claw; shredding his skin and making it go blue of frostbite; and smashed Icebreaker against his sides.

The satisfying crunch of broken ribs made me smile widely, but my humor was cut short when the bastard spit at me, and I dodged it in the nick of time. The poisonous substance hit my left ear and devour my hair and part of my skin with a nasty itching sensation. My demonic taint prevented the poison to go further, but the pain was there and I unconsciously let the arm that I have trapped go.

The giant still had enough strength to kick me in the chest, and into the ground, with enough force to make me lost my breath. I rolled and surrounded myself with sharp ice, turning me into a rolling spiked pin. The several impacts of something liquid that echoed over my blackish ice told me that the poison spits of the giant Desierto inhabitant were not only poisonous but highly acidic. My ear could attest to that, but to melt ice?.

Recovering and rolling into a kneeling position, I raise my claw and a wall of ice surged between us. That gave me more than enough time to set my trap ready. Just in time, the wall cracked under the barrage of hits that the giant delivered to it. The giant found me waiting, and ready for another exchange of opinions.

The debate started with a series of impossible strikes that bent in impossible ways and went for vital spots, I reacted by armoring myself in ice spikes; after a series of painful, for both of us, hits, he abandoned the strategy; I answered with a series of hammer strikes, forcing him to deflect of be flattened like a pancake.

Poison erupted around him like a coat, but I froze the poison with a touch of Icebreaker, the poison tried to attack me from the sides, acting like a dozen of living whips that went for my back. From my back surged a hydra of ice that faced the poison whips. The whips were strong enough to resist the freezing touch of the hydra, but not strong enough to break them; they were at a draw.

The floor turned into a pond of poison, surrounding us with geysers of noxious gas, but it turned into a frozen mist as soon as it came near me, the floor around me was frozen as well, trapped in a bubble of ice.

During all this time, all these attacks, counterattacks and feints, we both were still playing for the end game. We both knew that we are at a stalemate, and the only card that the giant could pull over me was his superior physical status, something that was growing weaker and weaker inside of the area of numbing cold that surrounded us.

With a double strike, the giant tried to pierce my heart, and I blocked it with my left claw. The strength behind the impact cracked the spikes and shattered a good chunk of my ice claw. But the real trick was pushing me back, gaining some space.

Before my eyes, the giant started to stretch and transform, enlarging himself until instead of a man, a massive snake with the hood of a royal cobra stared at me. From his human-sized fangs, an acidic combination of poison fell to the ground, dissolving it in a second. The green eyes of the snake were fixated in me, savoring how it was going to devour me entirely.

When the snake used his tail to entrap me and down his own mouth to turn me into a snack, I exploded like a grenade of blackish ice spikes and shrapnel. Hissing in pain, the snake retracted its tail and failed to notice how behind the clone I was preparing Icebreaker for a demolishing strike. The snake reacted in time, covering its head with her own tail, but it was not a perfect block and the inertia of the hammer sent it to the ground with sufficient strength to create a foot deep crater under the point of impact.

The tail, perhaps spasmodically, managed to blindside me, crushing my left side under its weight and strength and forcing me into the reach of the fangs. Surrounding myself with armor to prevent the mixture salivating from his fangs to reach me, I was trapped under its fangs. The snake was putting all its had to crush me and turn me into his meal.

The sucker never saw it coming. The Desierto inhabitant turned massive cobra didn't see how three clones of me made of ice had surrounded him. The assassin was so focused on finishing me, that he did not perceive the three incoming projectiles until it was too late.

For an entire minute, my clones had been charging arrows made of black ice, and when the snake stood quiet over me, trying to chew me up, they let the arrows fly and turned several meters of the snake into frozen chunks.

The crippling strikes, and sudden loss of kilos of body mass; that always hurts, no matter how good you are at [Transformation Magic]; made the snake blank in pain and surprise for a second. That made him lessen the pressure that I was feeling, and when it faulted, I was the one crushing the fangs under my fingers; [Giant Magic] for the win, and with all that I had left, I used a spell of the Devil-Slayer repertoire.

"[Ice Devil´s Rage]", I screamed at the top of my lungs.

A blue magical circle, the size of myself, manifested in front of me and directly at the throat of the snake. A black blizzard surged from the magical circle tearing the neck, throat and everything that the blizzard touched in its path until it ripped the snake in frozen chunks that went flying everywhere. After the blizzard ended, I found myself holding the head of the dark-skinned man; but lacking the lower jaw and with a surprised expression etched into his features at the moment of his death.

Adrenaline failed and pain came, only my ice was preventing me from bleeding to death, and the taint of the Devil Slayer was the only thing that prevented the poison that I had inhaled and being injected with, to kill me. I had several broken bones and several internal bruises and bleeding.

Everything hurt.

These six assassins were professionals, they were elite, and the snake man was a complete psycho with a real shit ton of muscle to back up his threats. Their magic and magical weapons were the real deal, and they knew how to fight. These six are very expensive, of that, I had no doubt, someone with real deep pockets had paid them to ambush the mages with the prototype.

I don't know who had such deep pockets, but the prototype was a prototype of domestic lacryma, so it was hardly the invention of the century. These assassins look ready and prepared to take down Erza, an S-class mage. I seriously doubt that they had time to prepare all this shit in barely half a day since we reached the city and took the prototype, these people were targeting my Team.

Pained and tired, I rest over a tree at the edge of the path, ignoring the disastrous scenario around me, and let my clones loot whatever they found useful from the bodies of the dead assassins, let the clones collect it, and with the last of my strength, put it into my storage dimension.

The clones vanished when they filled their mission, and I just laid at the side of the tree, fighting to be conscious, and do not let the ice plugging my wounds to vanish. I only had to endure until Natsu is back with help. I knew that Natsu will be back, it was in his blood, Natsu would never abandon family and the Guild was family from his point of view.

Oh, I have been carrying the head of the snake man without me knowing. Another signal that I was reaching my limit; its been a while since anyone pushed me to the limits like this. Tombos have been a challenge but in a completely different matter as we were both magic-less and limited only to our physical strength, skill, and wits. Ymir was the only one that has pushed me that much about a year and a half ago.

"I should really thank you", I spoke to the head, impaling it in a small spike. The creation of the spike has been a chore, something that made me grunt in frustration and exhaustion. "You have pushed me to my limits, force me to adapt and overcome, for that, I thank you".

Smiling to myself, I felt that the absorption of the loot was complete and before I know it, I was already fading into unconsciousness.

What a great fight.