I'm All Fired Up!

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

August, x784.

While most of the Fairy Tail wizards were fending off the attacks from Jose's [Shades] and spells of all kinds, from pink smoke to purple fire to wooden constructs rained down over the area where the original guild hall once stood, the sound of a loud explosion from the higher floors of the Phantom Lor headquarters managed to draw many of their attention.

A moment later, shortly after seeing a flash of pink light, they saw the battered figure of Sol flying out of the structure and falling toward the river.

"Looks like Big Sis is having fun." Lisanna cheered as she shredded a [Shade] into particles of [Darkness Magic] with the claws she gained from her [Animal Soul: Cat] form.

After dispatching the [Shade] in front of her, Lisanna, in the form of a humanoid cat clad in a two piece, tiger-skin bikini with cat-like features such as long, sharp claws, cat ears, a tail, and a cat's nose, used the additional speed granted by the [Take Over] to jump around the battlefield and deal with any unsuspecting [Shades].

"Yeah!" Elfman roared in his [Take Over] form of the beast as he flung one [Shade after another around with his immense strength. "Mira showed that guy what a real man looks like."

"Mirajane is not a man." Laki replied dryly while sidestepping a [Shade's] claw swipe before gesturing with her hands in its direction. "[Wood-Make: Violent Approach]."

In the next instant, a large, spiked, wooden ball formed in front of her and was launched at the attacking [Shade], dispersing it.

*Boom!*

"I don't know how many times I've asked myself this, but what do her spell names even mean?" Bisca asked as she cocked her magic shotgun before unloading a magic slug loaded with [Light Magic] into the nearest [Shade].

"Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

"I've known her for as long as I've been in the guild." Alzack said while spraying [Ice Magic] bullets from the pistol in his right hand at a group of [Shades] before aiming his right pistol at the now frozen targets. "But her naming sense has always been weird. I even remember a time when Alfonzo tried to get her to use more normal names, ending with him just having a massive headache."

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

Just after finishing his explanation, Alzack fired [Light Magic] bullets at all the frozen [Shades], dispersing them for good.

"Kya~~~~~~~~~~!"

While the battle continued, suddenly, everyone on the battlefield heard a scream filled with despair. Looking in the direction of the scream's source, everyone saw Cana with an expression of lament on her face and looking towards the ground.

Following Cana's line of sight, the Fairy Tail wizards saw the remains of a broken barrel laying atop a puddle of what they assumed to be ale.

"Oh, shit!" Macao exclaimed in horror. "Everyone, get down! Things are about to get dangerous!"

And just as Macao warned, Cana's expression morphed from one filled with despair into one completely devoid of emotion. Then, she reached into her two card pouches, drawing and discarding cards rapidly. Eventually, she had a handful of cards that she was satisfied with and channeled her magic power into them.

"Card Magic: Super Nova]." Cana chanted dispassionately.

A moment later, Cana was covered in a bright, white light. Then, after another moment, the light was blasted in all directions in a hemispherical shape originating from Cana's chest, where she held the cards. Luckily, Macao's warning came in time, as all the Fairy Tail wizards had thrown themselves to the ground, saving them from the indiscriminate spell.

The [Shades], on the other hand, were not so lucky. Although the magical shockwave did not cover the entire area around her starting from the ground, the [Shades] were nearly ten feet (approx. 3 m) tall. As a result, almost all of the [Shades] surrounding the Fairy Tail wizards were destroyed.

A moment later, due to magic power exhaustion, Cana flopped down where she stood and looked at the destroyed barrel and puddle of ale in grief.

"You were taken away from us before your time." Cana said sadly. "But don't worry, you can rest in peace. I've taken revenge on those who did this to you."

Meanwhile, Makarov, the first to recover after Cana's spell, fired [Light Magic] blasts at all the surviving [Shades] while occasionally glancing at the completely distraught Cana.

'When he gets back, I need to have a serious conversation with Gildarts about his daughter.' Makarov thought to himself as he continued to cast spells. 'I should probably talk to Alfonzo, too. There's probably a higher chance that she'll listen to him rather than Gildarts.'

At the same time, on the western outskirts of Magnolia, Reedus was standing protectively in front of Lucy while quickly painting all sorts of animals on his white clothes that cover his comically oversized torso. Then, as he completed each painting, he would animate them with is [Picto Magic] and send them at the young man, Gajeel Redfox, who was attacking him in an attempt to kidnap Lucy.

Unfortunately, although Reedus was a strong A-Class wizard, he was not in Gajeel's league when it came to destructive power or fighting prowess, which was made painfully obvious when Gajeel, with little effort, turned each of Reedus' painted animals into paint stains on the ground with physical strength alone.

"If this is all you got, it would be better if you just hand the girl over." Gajeel said with a smug grin on his face. "Although I can't guarantee it would be painless for you, you did make me waste a lot of time, after all. But it would be a lot less painful than if I have to make my way over there myself."

"Hmph! I would never allow you to take one of us without a fight." Reedus replied with a snort.

"Reedus, I'll help, too." Lucy said from behind Reedus with a Celestial Key in her hand. "[Open! Gate of the Golden Lion, Leo]."

In the next instant, a young man with spikey orange hair, blue tinted sunglasses, and wearing a black business suit appeared next to Lucy.

"Hey, gorgeous, need my help with something?" Leo asked as soon as he was summoned.

"There's no time for flirting, Leo." Lucy said with a slight frown. Then, she pointed a finger at Gajeel before she continued. "That guy is trying to kidnap me."

Following Lucy's finger, Leo finally caught sight of Gajeel. Then, he pushed his sunglasses up his nose as his expression became solemn.

"Well, we can't have that now, can we?" Leo asked rhetorically as his hands were engulfed in bright [Light Magic].

A moment later, Leo had dashed forward throwing a left hook at Gajeel's right cheek.

"Oh, this should make things more interesting." Gajeel said as he leaned back slightly to narrowly dodge the punch.

Unbothered by Gajeel's dodge, Leo followed up with a right straight that Gajeel ducked under before once again leaning his head out of the way of a left uppercut. Then, Gajeel swatted the following overhead right with his left palm, using the momentum to perform a spin and throw his right elbow at Leo's temple.

Reacting quickly, Leo forced Gajeel's elbow upward with his left palm before landing a powerful right hook on Gajeel's rib cage, causing him to slide away due to the force of the impact.

"Not bad." Gajeel said while rubbing the spot where he was just punched. "I actually felt that."

With that, Gajeel rushed forward with a smile on his face. As soon as he was in range, he used his left foot to throw a front kick that Leo dodged by stepping back. However, before Leo could react any further, Gajeel changed the direction of his foot and stomped down, hard, on Leo's right foot.

Grunting in pain from the sudden stomp, Leo barely got his hands up to block Gajeel's follow up attack, a let straight. Unfortunately, Leo was too focused on the attack targeting his face and missed the right hook aimed at his ribs.

"Gah!" Leo grunted as the punch landed on his ribs.

Unfortunately, with Gajeel's foot pressing down on his own, Leo was not able to make any distance after taking the attack, so he was once again struck by the roundhouse kick that followed. Though, he was able to use his left shoulder to protect his head from the blow.

As a result of Gajeel's kick landing, Leo was sent  flying to his right. Then, after slamming into the ground, he rolled a couple of times before pushing himself up and retaking his fighting stance.

"Damn… That hurt." Leo said as he rolled his left shoulder.

"Leo, are you alright?" Lucy asked in concern.

Although she was concerned with Leo's wellbeing, Lucy was even more reproachful of herself. Leo was one of the strongest spirits of the Celestial World. However, his power on Earth Land was limited by his contractor's magic power. Meaning, Lucy was one of the factors that put Leo at a disadvantage in this fight.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head." Leo replied with a grin. "It will take a lot more than that to keep me down."

After that, Leo focused on Gajeel once again, his grin nowhere to be seen.

"Ready for round two?" Leo asked.

"I hope you can make it more interesting than round one." Gajeel replied mockingly.

"You can count on that." Leo replied as he started running towards Gajeel once again.

However, instead of going in for melee combat right away, halfway to his opponent, Leo took on a posture that was clearly made for casting magic.

"[Lion's Brilliance]." Leo chanted.

With is chant, Leo radiated a bright light, causing Gajeel to shield his eyes. Curiously, the bright light did not seem to bother Reedus or Lucy, though.

With Gajeel distracted, Leo channeled as much of his magic power through his body as it could handle. Then, he dashed around Gajeel, his steps making no sound. Once he was behind his opponent, Leo's right fist lit up with [Light Magic] even brighter than before and threw a punch at the back of Gajeel's head.

"[Regulus impact]." Leo chanted, his punch halfway to its destination.

To Leo's surprise, Gajeel, with his eyes closed made a half turn and raised his left hand, stopping Leo's punch in its tracks by grabbing Leo's wrist in a vice-like grip.

"How?" Leo muttered in disbelief.

Though the power behind Leo's last punch was significantly higher than before and the fact that Gajeel stopped it with one hand surprised him, the fact that Gajeel was able to react, while he was unable to see his surroundings, was even more of a surprise.

Another thing that Flustered Leo was the fact that his punch did not connect. As previously stated, the punch he just threw was significantly stronger than any other he had thrown since he was summoned. However, the real crux of the [Regulus Impact] spell was the lion head made of [Light Magic] that would surge forth after Leo's attack landed.

"I'm a Dragon Slayer." Gajeel said with a grin. "even if I couldn't see you, I could smell you."

"Dragon Slayer?" Leo exclaimed. "I thought they were all killed off four hundred years ago."

"Looks like someone needs to keep up with the times." Gajeel replied with a smug grin. "But now, I think it's time for you to leave the stage. Come back again when you're strong enough to be a real challenge. [Iron Dragon's Club]."

With that, Gajeel swung his right arm that had transformed into an iron club across the side of Leo's head, sending him flying once again.

"Argh!" Leo shouted in pain as his sunglasses broke.

Like last time, Leo slammed into the ground and started rolling. Unlike last time, however, he was unable to arrest the momentum. Instead, he continued to roll until the momentum naturally ran out.

"Leo~~~!" Lucy screamed in concern.

"Ah… Sorry, Gorgeous." Leo said weakly. "It looks like I'm done for today."

With that, Leo was transported back to the Celestial Spirit World in a flash of golden light.

Meanwhile, Reedus had once again started sending his paintings at Gajeel to try and stop him. Unfortunately, Gajeel had grown tired of the nuisance Reedus represented. So, he simply dashed forward, destroying Reedus paintings along the way before landing a high kick on Reedus chin and knocking him unconscious.

"Now it's just you and me, Princess." Gajeel said as he turned towards Lucy. "Why don't you do us both a favor and come along quietly."

"No, I'm not going back!" Lucy shouted indignantly.

"*Sigh* I guess we're doing this the hard way, then." Gajeel said in an annoyed tone.

Before Gajeel could start moving toward her, Lucy unwrapped her whip from around her right leg. Then, with all her might, she swung it at Gajeel. Unfortunately, she was neither strong nor skilled enough to even slow Gajeel down.

"You would have been better off summoning another one of those spirits." Gajeel said as he effortlessly caught the whip.

Lucy knew what Gajeel said was true. However, she also knew that due to her weakness, she would have only been summoning them to receive injuries at Gajeel's hand. Although, they would have given her an opportunity to run away, she would never sacrifice her spirits in that manner.

"No matter." Gajeel said with a shrug. "This ends now."

With that, Gajeel yanked on the whip, causing Lucy, who had been trying to free it from his grasp, to come flying towards him.

'Am I really gonna be force to go back?' Lucy lamented as she approached Gajeel. 'No, I don't wanna go back. Not like this. Someone, please help me.'

As if to answer her prayers, a pink and black blur rushed past, catching Lucy before Gajeel could get his hands on her.

"Huh?" Lucy exclaimed in confusion as she found herself being carried like a princess.

Looking up, she was surprised to see Natsu, with a solemn expression on his face.

"Natsu, why are you here?" Lucy asked in a confused tone. "Don't they need you at the guild hall?"

"Well, Alfonzo told me to come and protect you." Natsu said as he put Lucy down. "And it's a good thing he did. If not, I would have followed him into Phantom Lord's base after he destroyed that cannon thingy and the top floor. Then, they would have been able to take you away."

Hearing Natsu's explanation. Lucy could feel her heart start to race.

'Alfonzo sent him?' Lucy thought to herself. 'Even while dealing with some kind of cannon, he was still worried about me?'

As Lucy's thoughts continued, her cheeks started to redden. However, before she could get lost in her thoughts, Gajeel's surprised shout pulled her back to reality.

"Are you saying that guy stopped the Jupiter Cannon?" Gajeel shouted in disbelief. "That's impossible. Nothing can withstand a shot from the Jupiter Cannon!"

"I don't really care if you believe me or not." Natsu said while cracking his knuckles. "But it's time to make you pay for hurting my friends. You're about to find out why even other dragons don't touch a dragon's reverse scale, Gajeel."

Just after Natsu finished, he flared his magic power, resulting in fire engulfing his entire body.

"Oh yeah! Now, I'm all fired up!" Natsu shouted before dashing towards Gajeel.