A.N.: Okay so there was actually a small delay as a tree fell on a powerline outside my house and cut my power. They fixed it pretty quickly, but my DSL broke or something, someone is coming tomorrow to look at it. I couldn't wait to post this though, and am finishing this up at a restaurant. Hope you like the chapter.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Gildartz." Natsu spoke up. He couldn't look at the man, as he was sure he was rooting for him, and he'd be crushed to see that Gildartz thought he was too immature to stand down. The only answer from Gildartz was a surge in his power, that knocked Natsu back a few steps. Finally Natsu turned his gaze to the older man, and was met with the same serious gaze. No judgment came from him, just the unspoken promise that should Natsu refuse to stand down, he would be struck down.

Well that suited Natsu just fine. "Can I ask you something?" In the corner, Happy had gone silent, probably realizing what was about to happen.

"Sure."

"Can you keep a secret?"

Gildartz' serious visage switched to confusion at the question. His power was still warping the area near him but he tilted his head as he replied. "A secret? What are you talking about kid?"

Natsu chose not to answer vocally. For the first time, he unleashed his complete power in front of a Fairy Tail mage. Similarly to Gildartz, the surroundings near Natsu was strongly affected by the magic power outputting from him. The space around him lit up as the energy shone from his body and the soil didn't tremble with his might, the damp ground beneath him transformed from moist leafage to dry tree-litter. He relished in the feeling of his power running through his body, warming him from the inside out and fending off the oppressive aura of Gildartz.

Finally able to breathe easily again, Natsu cracked his neck and enjoyed the flabbergasted expression on Gildartz' face.

Gildartz collected himself and settled into a defensive stance. His forehead was shining with sweat from the combination of tropical heat and Natsu's blazing power. "Seems you've been holding out on me, kid." He grinned over to him and his power's effects on the environment ceased as he readied himself and stopped wasting magic power on intimidation.

Natsu followed suit and the previously chaotic clearing was suddenly silent. Daylight shone freely down upon them from the canopy being blown away. The ground had all leaves and grass blown away and the dirt dried from both mages' exuding power. The setting would never be recognized as the previously cool and dark underbrush. "A bit, yeah."

Chuckling, and clearly much more into the fight then before, Gildartz spoke up again. "My power was supposed to be enough to teach you that sometimes you need to know when to sheathe you weapons and retreat." Seeing that Natsu was not going to agree or comment on the original plan, Gildartz dashed towards him in a single leap. As approached, he yelled out "So I'll just have to BEAT IT into you!"

Natsu sprang back before Gildartz reached him, knowing he didn't want to be hit by any Crash Magic. Calling forth some flames into his palms, he condensed them down until it looked like he had two glowing orange marbles in his palms. Orange hair filled his vision as Gildartz jumped once more from where he previously landed and pain exploded from his face as the crash mage headbutted him. Luckily it didn't hurt bad enough to disorient him, and he placed his hands on the man's chest.

Gildartz threw a glowing fist towards Natsu's own chest, but before he could contact him, Natsu released the flames on his palms and the super condensed heat and power exploded forward. Natsu felt the man be thrown away by the blast when the rebounding force suddenly disappeared. As the blast died down, Natsu could see that for a few hundred feet, he had burned away more of the jungle. Around the edges parts of the foliage was on fire and on the opposite side of the blast crater was Gildartz. His cloak had been completely burnt away now and his tunic had a large hole over his chest.

They both looked a little shocked at the outcome. Natsu thought that Gildartz would crash his attack, lessening it, but instead he tried to finish Natsu early with a head-on attack. Gildartz didn't think that he would be slower than Natsu. Gildartz panted a bit before beginning to run towards Natsu.

"That hurt Natsu!"

"There's more where that came from!" Natsu shouted as he ducked under Gildartz' high kick. He shot out a flaming elbow only to be blocked with a cross guard.

Throwing down his arms, Gildartz kneed Natsu in the gut and the dragon slayer flew up into the air. Before he could gather himself, Gildartz jumped up as well. Natsu only had the chance to try to block before Gildartz' heavy fist slammed into his gut again and sent him rocketing to the ground.

He landed on his back and had the wind knocked out of him for the third time in a row. He leapt to his feet as Gildartz landed and warily watched him as he tried to catch his breath. "You'll pay for that one." He covered himself in flames and tackled Gildartz. He was avoided as Gildartz ducked out of the way and gave a mighty push from Natsu's left.

Without the pain from being struck, Natsu had his bearings and aimed his front towards the man on the ground as he flew through the air for the nth time that day. Gulping in the flames surrounding his body, Natsu kept them all inside his mouth. It was very bad for a dragon slayer to consume their own produced element, but he didn't swallow. As the flames had taken on their own power and life after surrounding him, he was able to combine his old flames with the new fire he bred for his roar for a new attack.

"FIRE DRAGON'S AURA ROAR" The attack was not like his previous roar in any way but name. Launched from his mouth was an enormous yellow sphere of flame, with white-hot fire at it's center, protected form cooling down any by the cooler, but separate, flames surrounding it.

Watching the approaching attack warily, Gildartz held out both hands and cupped them in-between his body and the ball of fire. "100 SPLIT"

With that shout, the single fifty-foot tall ball of fire was divided into 100 six-inch tall ones. 100 six-inch tall balls of concentrated fire magic that were suddenly surrounding the defender. These didn't fizzle out like wisps of flame, but instead just continued their path towards their target.

Gildartz realized this a second to late, and was covered in flames. That was before a square acre around him exploded from the attack, and continued to explode for several seconds as each miniature attack struck the mage. Natsu silently watched this happen from where he landed.

It took minutes for the smoke to clear up. As it did, Natsu refused to move an inch.

Gildartz was still standing, and appeared to be only slightly harmed. He had lost most of his eyebrows, the front of his hair was singed and smokey, and he was grimacing a bit. Similarly to him, the jungle around both fighters was now ash, and further out was still on fire. Unfortunately for both fighters, another thing that turned to ash from that attack was Gildartz' clothes, and now he stood naked in front of Natsu.

Used to such "sights" from his rival Gray, Natsu wasn't too grossed out, but it was more of his idol than he ever wanted to see.

"I'm impressed Natsu." Spoke Gildartz. He didn't move, but he was clearly showing his pride with a big grin. He patted some ash and soot off of his shoulders and head. "Impressed… and THOROUGHLY PISSED OFF!" He shouted. The grin was now a much more menacing baring of teeth as Gildartz covered himself. "THOSE WERE MY ONLY CLOTHES ASSHOLE!" He looked like he'd tear up in frustration.

Natsu was a bit frightened of his wrath but couldn't resist getting a dig in. "Guess you should've packed extra like me!" He pointed over to Happy and his pack. "Aye Happy?"

"Aye Natsu!"

Gildartz stared over at Happy for a moment. Then he slowly turned to look at Natsu. While staring at Natsu he slowly lifted up his left arm. Then he pointed it towards Happy.

Natsu saw it coming and shouted at him. "Don't you dare! Happy RUN!"

Happy instantly rose in the air with his magic as a white bolt shot out of Gildartz' palm and exploded the area where he was. Where the traveling pack still was. Well, where the traveling pack used to be. No it was scattered around pretty much everywhere.

"Oops." Gildartz grinned and laughed at the destruction of Natsu's extra clothes. "Looks like we BOTH should've packed extra clothes, huh?"

Natsu checked to make sure Happy made it out unscathed before turning back to Gildartz. The older man was still laughing and now pointing at the remains. Even knowing that he was being played, he couldn't help the fury rising inside him. "You dick!"

Gildartz immediately stopped laughing and readied himself for another attack.

Natsu poured his magic into his fists as he prepared for his favorite attack. Running towards Gildartz, he dodged a tentative kick from the man and punched him in the chin with his flaming fist. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Recoiling only slightly from the blow, Gildartz twisted around and unleashed a mighty jab with his elbow. The attack hit Natsu in the shoulder he attacked with previously and was immediately responded by Natsu.

With another roar of the attack's name, Natsu struck him in the cheek. Both fighters leapt away from each other for some breathing room. Natsu massaged his aching shoulder with his other hand and Gildartz rubbed his face. Then he frowned at the dragon slayer and spoke again.

"Natsu." The warning in his voice made Natsu freeze.

Natsu raised an eyebrow as a signal to continue.

"You are much stronger than I could have ever thought you'd be at this point."

He felt warmed by the praise from someone who he admired, but Gildartz wasn't finished.

"You are easily S-class already, and I think we both know that." He waited for a nod from Natsu before finishing. "However. I have yet to use any of my magic offensively."

Natsu had already noticed that fact, but something about the way Gildartz said it made his stomach drop.

"I'm giving you another chance to back down." He stared Natsu down. "I suggest you take it." Without waiting for a response he continued. "Don't get me wrong. I hope you don't."

Natsu furrowed his brow and questioned him. "What do ya mean?"

Gildartz suddenly beamed at him. "I was supposed to teach you that sometimes, retreat is the only option that will keep you alive. But the truth is, I don't want to, because I'm having too much fun." He stood there, burnt and wearing nothing but a grin, and his metal prosthetic limbs. "Now it's my turn to attack."

Suddenly very nervous, Natsu watched for any sign of aggression, and caught Gildartz' change in stance before he charged. Responding immediately, he threw his body to the left. In the blink of an eye, Gildartz glowed white, and then the area where he stood disintegrated. Natsu only felt a gust of wind and heard a loud crack that reminded him of thunder. Frantic, he tried find Gildartz but he was nowhere to be seen.

A shout from behind him alerted him, and he turned around in time to see a glowing white fist before pain exploded from his face. Disoriented from the suddenness of the punch, he was unable to stop himself from rocketing backwards.

Seeing the ground rush past his face as he flew, Natsu was about to try and use it to slow his flight before he impacted with a tree. The tree trunk stood no chance at the speed his body was going, and exploded in a storm of splinters and sawdust, as did two other trees Natsu hit before the fourth tree held it's ground and his flight was halted.

Natsu tried to regain his senses but with the pain from his face, blood in his eyes, and bruises from hitting the trees, he could only lie there and wait for the agony to dissipate. A loud crack put that plan on hold as he tried to catch sight of Gildartz before he was attacked once more, but it was luckily just the tree he landed on falling over.

Then he heard quick footfalls and jumped to his feet and wiped the blood from his eyes. This time he could see Gildartz running at him, right fist glowing once more. Unwilling to take a blow like the last one, Natsu sent his magic towards his own fists. Then he charged towards him, and Crash magic met Dragon Slayer magic.

"Crushing Blow!"

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

The flame-fueled fist of Natsu just couldn't hold ground against the might of Gildartz' magic. After meeting Natsu's attack, the fist just continued on its path and he was struck in the mouth. The power of his own attack thankfully took away a good portion of the force, and Natsu was sent reeling, but not flying.

Even though his mouth throbbed with pain, Natsu took the chance to send his left hand at Gildartz. Fist met mouth for the second time in as many seconds, and Gildartz was also sent stumbling.

Planting his feet squarely on the ground, Gildartz seemed to aim his body at Natsu. Another crack like thunder split the air, and Natsu felt the snap of his ribs and sternum give under the sudden impact of Gildartz' head. Flying back again, Natsu couldn't even think as he felt shards of rib bone stabbing deeper than they should ever be.

Landing on the ground only did more damage as the bone fragments of Natsu's ribs shook around and got lodged into other various internal organs. Thankfully his spine was not damaged, and he was able to look down at his chest as he lay on his back.

Instantly regretting doing so, as he could clearly see an indent the size of Gildartz' head in his chest where it caved in. Involuntarily gasping in shock, Natsu felt his lungs press against the shards of rib and crushed sternum and winced as pain even greater than what he was originally feeling shot throught his body. Everything hurt as he turned around, but he had to as he felt blood filling up his lungs.

Coughing hurt more than anything he had ever experienced, but he had to in order to clear out his lungs enough to breathe. Once the ground under his face had a nice pool of blood and lung pieces, Natsu breathed as quickly as he could to make up for the limited depth of breaths he could take. It wasn't nearly enough, and his vision went blurry as he fought to stay conscious. With his lungs filling back up with blood and unable to get enough oxygen, Natsu watched a fuzzy image of Gildartz running towards him. Then the black that was encroaching his vision filled his view, and he was dimly aware of falling back on the ground.