Author's Note: Well, I thought I said this Chapter was going to release on the 12th but apparently I said on the 5th...my bad! So here is Chapter 4 and hope you guys enjoy my first battle chapter. I tried my best but let me know how I did by leaving a review, it always helps!

Poll: Poll is extremely close so by the time the next Chapter rolls around the poll will be closed so don't forget to vote!

Chapter 4: Battle for Desierto

THE NEXT DAY

"Everyone ready?" Erza asked the entire team crouched down hiding behind the large sand hill. Sunrise was barely approaching, and this was the perfect time to strike.

"HA! Been ready!" Gajeel cracked his knuckles as he wore a large grin.

"Free and I are done setting up the Jutsu Shiki barriers," Levy answered.

"That's right. That should give us a considerable advantage. So, whenever you're ready Erza, just give the word." Freed clutched his sheathed sword in anticipation.

Erza nodded and inhaled a good amount of air. "GO! She lifted her hand in the air and they all took off.

Gajeel and Erza were the first to take off with Levy and Freed just behind. Gajeel jumped up in the air and yelled "Iron Dragon's Roar"! Gajeel shot his signature dragon slayer move against the enemy camp. The impact of the roar scattered sand all around in a cloud of dust and tore apart the camp. After a few moments and nothing but silence, the sand began to settle exposing nothing but a lump of sand where the camp used to be.

"What the? Where the hell did they go?" Gajeel scratched his head in confusion.

"You know, that's not a nice way to great someone." A voice spoke underneath Gajeel startling everyone especially Gajeel who looked down to see that two hands were grabbing onto his legs.

"GAJEEL! WATCH OUT!" Levy yelled in vain as Gajeel was quickly pulled down under the sand.

"AH! WHA-!" Was the only thing that Gajeel managed to get out before getting pulled down into the sand.

"*OMFPH*" 'What the hell! This bastard' Gajeel shut his eyes as he was dragged under the sand for a good while. He roughly kicked at the hands to try in escape in vain. 'Shit, it's not working. Gotta try something else.' "Iron Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel roared freeing himself and propelling himself backwards.

"What the hell was that? Erza, what's the plan? We gotta help him!" Levy was getting worried that Gajeel hadn't come out form where he was dragged under.

Erza was about to answer until the sand they were standing on started shaking. "Guys, move!" Erza pushed Levy out the way while Freed took off to the air as Gajeel exploded from out the sand and he landed on the floor with various scuff marks on his body.

"Gajeel! Are you alright!?"

Gajeel pushed himself up and glanced over at Levy. "Yeah, no worries. Bastard just got the jump on me." He said dismissing her concern.

"Freed, activate the barrier!"

"Already on it, Erza." Freed was about to activate his ruins then suddenly a mound of sand began rising from the group putting everyone in suspense. As the mound kept getting larger, sand began sliding off the mound revealing a man with light brown hair and green eyes. His complexion was tan and wore a white head-wrap with a stone necklace hanging pretty low just above the belly button. The pendant was a bright yellow stone.
"Well, what do we have here? A couple of weak mages it looks like. Hey! Akira! What do you make of these guys?" The man turned to look at the mound of sand where their camp used to be before Gajeel destroyed it.

Coming out of the sand sound that revealed was shielding a beautiful woman revealed to be named Akira. She had short black hair down to her shoulders and a red headband on her forehead. She wore a white long sleeve shirt and tan cargo pants with black boots. "Now, now Mesta, never underestimate the enemy. You know, these guys are Fairy Tail mages." She walked to his side. "The ones that defeated those demons created by Zeref."

Mesta lifted his eyebrow. "Oh…that's right! Fairy Tail, I heard you guys are the strongest guild in all of Fiore. Is that true?" He spoke in a mocking tone.

"Damn right! And it's four on two, hardly seems fair but I was never the type to play fair." Gajeel had a large grin on his face. 'Man I've been dying to have a good fight where I can go all out.'

Levy saw the grin Gajeel had and already knew exactly what he was thinking. 'Sometimes I really do wonder why I ended up falling for that guy.'

Mesta smiled at Gajeel's comment. "I know, hardly a fair fight at all. If it was just me maybe you bunch might actually stand a chance." He laughed.

"If I were you guys I'd go back to wherever you came from. I'm not really in the mood to deal with you right now." Mesta offered. "What's it going to be?"

"As if I would back down against a treasonous criminal!" Erza unsheathed her sword and pointed it towards the two.

"Ah, you must be the famous Titania, even I've heard about you. I'm always hearing lots of big things about lots of Mages in my travels." Mesta smiled. "Shame they always seem to disappoint."

Erza seemed unfazed by her enemy's disregard of her abilities. "Freed, are you almost done?"

Freed nodded and activated his Jutsu Shiki summoning a large box-shaped dome made out of letters. The barrier was about thirty feet in the air, about the size of a football field.

Freed smiled at his success. 'Setting something like this up with only a few hours in advance would normally not be possible so I'm glad Levy was here.'

"What the? What's is this?" Mesta looked around in confusion.

Akira's expression was a lot calmer showing she wasn't too impressed. "I told you not to underestimate the enemy didn't I?" She said in a teasing tone.

"Let me establish the rules here, killing is not allowed, one cannot leave the barrier until one side is victorious and lastly, Mages with the Fairy Tail's guild mark will receive a 25% boost." Freed spoke calmly as he carefully examined Mesta and Akira. 'This is perfect. We've reduced Mesta's powers and chances of winning significantly. We got the numbers advantage and certainly aren't lacking in strength, after all, we got Erza and Gajeel.' Freed smirked coming to the conclusion that this was a sure victory for them. He looked at Akia. "Hm~ we didn't get any information on her, I wonder how strong she is.'

"What the hell is he talking about Akira? What rules are you talking about? You think messing with me is some sort of game?" Mesta grew a tick mark and sand began to swirl around him slowly. "If anything, you idiots just signed your death certificate. You've only trapped yourselves in a box like sitting ducks."

"Let's get this over with already, Iron Dragon's Club!" Gajeel dashed forward extending his transformed hand towards Mesta's face but before he could land a hit a wall of sand rose just in time to protect him.

At the same time Freed and Levy had set their sights at Akira and Freed dashed directly at her while Levy stayed behind to act as support.

Freed activating his Dark Ecriture Eye wasted no time in going for his sword. "Dark Ecriture: Destruction!" Unsheathing his sword at close distance delivering a devastating magic purple slash but Akira countered with "Full Lunar Shield!" and summoned a glowing white magic disk attached to her forearm and quickly went on the offensive raising her shield and pointed it straight towards Freed "Lunar High Beam!" releasing an incredibly bright light blinding both Freed and Levy.

"Such brightness! Levy look away!" Freed shouted in vain as Levy had already been blinded by the light.

"Ah! So…bright…" Levy tried shutting her eyes as hard as she could but still only managed to see white.

"Getting a little too hasty wouldn't you say? Lunar Beams!" Akira extended her arm and a magic circled formed shooting out dozens of white beams at the blinded mages.

A blinding light was coming from the direction where both Freed and Levy were taking on Akira getting the attention of Gajeel and Erza.

"What the hell? I can't see shit. Levy~!" Gajeel looked on in worry but that was quickly put aside he heard the battle going on between Erza and Mesta. 'I can't leave Erza alone against that bastard. I'm going to have to trust in her that she can handle that woman.'

While Gajeel was distracted with Levy and Freed's fight Erza Requiped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor summoning many swords that spun around her body before launching them towards Mesta's sand wall.

Once the swords hit it the wall they slowly sunk into the sand until they were locked inside the sand. *CRUNCH* *SHATTER* Erza's swords broke into little pieces.

Erza looked in astonishment as her swords broke like they were mere toys. 'This can't be. My swords, to be broken so easily…I can't underestimate him.' "Requip: Black Wing Armor"

Erza dashed forward in her Black Wing Armor brandishing her long sword and began slashing the lumps of sand Mesta kept sending towards her as Gajeel finally got back into the fight and dashed to flank him at the right side.

"Iron Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel cupped his hand as he shot a devastating roar towards Mesta but he dodged out of the way just in time to avoid a direct hit although he felt the force of the attack by the large shock-wave it created.

'What kind of attack was that? Is this the power of Dragon Slayer? Heh, he actually might give me more trouble than Titania. While I simply have to keep her at a distance and avoid hand to hand combat, this little Dragon can attack far range with this much power.' Mesta didn't get much time to think as by the time he finished that thought Erza had flown up in the air to where he was and wasted no time in using her sword to begin slashing in all directions.

Mesta was quick to act and go on the defense. "Desert Shield!" Mesta created a shield made out of sand with a mud-crack pattern and was able to successfully block all of Erza's attacks.

Erza beginning to get frustrated unleashed a much more powerful attack. "Moon Flash!" She zoomed past Mesta as she slashed her sword in a cross pattern that created powerful magic slices that ripped through the air and managed to break through Mesta's sand defenses. When the attack hit Mesta it threw him back until he impacted against the barrier wall and he fell to the ground.

Mesta having the wind knocked out of him struggled to get up but that was quickly stopped by

Gajeel delivering an Iron Dragon's Club to his chest which already had a decent gash dripping blood courtesy of Erza's Moon Slashand landed on his back on the desert floor.

'That's it? No way, this seems to easy.' Erza thought as she looked at the Sand Mage.

Gajeel also sensed something was off decided to check him out to make sure he'd been subdued and began walking toward the fallen mage.
"Gajeel, be careful. He went down too easy, something seems off." Erza warned.

Gajeel nodded. "Yeah, I know but we gotta check him out." He said as he kept walking cautiously towards Mesta until his feet were right next to his body and gave him a good kick to the side of his ribs making Erza flinch.

"Iron Dragon's Sword!" Gajeel turned his right hand into a sword and lifted the mage by his collar of his robe. "Yeah, you were right Erza." Gajeel muttered before stabbing the sword through Mesta's heart.

"Gajeel! What are you doing!?" Erza shouted in utter shock at the sight of Gajeel mercilessly killing another mage but before she could yell any further the blood dripping from Mesta where Gajeel had pierced begun turning into red sand and the body began breaking down into nothing but sand.

"What?" Erza had never in her life seen magic like this. 'You mean to tell me that was a fake?" It's just like Gray's… it's a clone! But how? He didn't have the opportunity to do the switch the switch, unless-!'

"We've been fighting a clone this entire time. Erza watch out!" Gajeel confirmed her suspicion when she felt something wrap around her ankles and before she could utter a word was pulled under the sand but Gajeel used

"Desert's Storm: Quicksand!" The muffled voice was heard from underground as the sand quickly was becoming much more watery in nature.

"Iron Dragon's Metal Wings!" Two large robotic wings ripped out of Gajeel's back and began flapping allowed him to take flight. "Shit, this guy's seriously pissing me off. Using the same cheap tricks are ya? Iron Dragon's Breath!" Gajeel unleashed a weaker version of his roar attacks right where Erza was pulled down to in order to hopefully create an opening within the sand and help Erza escape. "Better get out of there ya hear me"

"Well, what do we have here? The little dragon can fly now can he?" Wisps of Sand began twisting around the air to create a loosely put together Mesta by the looks of it.

"Iron Dragons Lance: Demon Logs!" Gajeel fired many sharp laced at Mesta but they simply passed through his body made out of sand but Gajeel pushed on turning his hand as Sword with spikes and using it like a chainsaw to slash at Mesta but Mesta jumped back only to be caught in the stomach by Gajeel's club. The club kept extending until he hit the rune wall and created a ripple effect and sand to float in the air creating a cloud of sand obstructing Mesta from sight.

The sand began to settle when Mesta began to chuckle to himself as he has pinned against the wall. "Hehehehehe, You're gonna have to try a little harder than that to hurt me." Mesta spoke as if nothing happened and when the sand finished settling it was revealed to Gajeel that Mesta was covered from head to toe in some sort of hard like sand.

"Huh? So, you still had that up your sleeve. Heh, only makes this more fun. GEHE!" Gajeel smiled widely.

"Are you sure you should be smiling, your friend is probably long gone by now. You know that don't you?" Mesta mocked Gajeel as he stood up.

"You talking about Erza? You're gonna need a lot more than that to do her in than that. I wouldn't get too cocky about yourself."
"Funny, I was actually about to say the same to you." Mesta cocked back his fist back as if going for a punch but opened his palm and aimed it towards the sky. "Sand Golem's Crushing Hands!" Two giant hands the size of houses made of sand shot out from the ground at opposite sides of Gajeel, crushing together with such force that a thunderous sound was heard like that of a lightning strike.

"GAH!" The feeling of being crushed and dragged across millions of tiny sand particles make Erza wheeze in pain. The pressure only worsened the farther she was dragged. Luckily thanks to Gajeel's roar she knew where the surface was. After struggling for a while and using her many swords she finally got the sand to lose some control over her and that when she heard a loud crash that shook even the ground she was trapped under.

"What was that?' Erza knew that couldn't be good news and things were beginning to get more serious. "Requip: Sea Empress Armor!" Erza used her Sea Empress Sword to create a giant whirlpool of water opening up the Sea of Sand she was trapped in.

"Dark Ecriture: Wings! Dark Ecriture: Pain!" Freed summoned wings made out of script and sent letters at Akira.

"Moon Reflection!" Akira lifted her shield absorbing reflect the exact spell back at freed which forced him to teleport via runes somewhere safer. "Using spells on her isn't' going to work it seems. Any ideas Levy?"

"Seem the only way to defeat her would be hand to hand combat. Not exactly my strong suit." Levy concluded.
"Exactly what I was thinking. It seems pointless to hold back any longer. Dark Ecriture: Absolute Shadow!"

*BOOM~!*

A large thundering sound was heard in the direction Gajeel was facing off against Mesta revealing two giant hands clapped together and no sign of Gajeel.

"Gajeel!"

"Go help him out. I'll take care of her till Erza comes back. I'm sure she'll be back." Freed told Levy in his Absolute shadow form which even Levy thought looked menacing with that black armor.

"OK, but be careful." Levy said as she took off running to the direction of Gajeel.

"You sure about taking me on by yourself?" Akira got into a battle stance as white orbs began to surround her body.

"I'll be more than enough, trust me." F

Both dashed towards each other, Freed with his claw-like hands extended ready to slash and Akira with a shield in one arm and a white orb on the other one cocked back ready to fight as well.

Mesta looked at the giant's hands and smiled. "In the end, he wasn't so tough. Shame." Mesta muttered as he looked at the giant hands clasped together. "I wonder how Akia is handling those other two. Turning to find Akira he saw how she was in a stalemate with that Script Mage who now was in Black Armor and what was interesting was this little girl running in his direction yelling "Gajeel!"

*Shake**Rumble* The ground began to shake and to Mesta's shock a huge gush of water erupted from the ground followed by Erza in her Flight Armor with various scratches and bruises.

"Erza!" Levy smiled seeing that she was safe after all. "Erza, I think that Gajeel's in trouble!"

"Impressive, not many people are strong enough to get out of that, you know?" Mesta told the redhead. "Though it's not surprising seeing as you are the famous Titania. You do live up to your name, unlike your other friend."

*Boom*

Both hands made out of sand exploded revealing Gajeel covered in his signature Iron Dragon's Scales.

"Sorry to disappoint but that hardly did a scratch." Gajeel taunted as he let out an enormous amount of magic power. "Don't tell me you actually think that your measly sand could actually take me out?"

Both Levy and Erza looked at Gajeel in surprise at how he came out of such attack that looked much stronger than that of Jura's Supreme King Rock Crush. 'Since when has Gajeel been this strong? To emit such power that rival Mira…' Levy couldn't help but admire his strength while Erza only looked surprised.

"So it seems you're not a complete weakling, not like it matters anyway. Akira should be done fairly soon and then you'll be in real trouble alight." Mesta spoke as his armor evolved and added many rocky spikes and plates giving his armor the look of a cracked desert floor.

"There's no way Freed could be taken out so easi-" Levy was caught off guard as Freed crashed on the floor right next to her causing everyone to go silent.

"HAHAHAHA! Oh man! Akira sure did a number on him." Mesta couldn't help but laugh at their faces.

Freed was still in his absolute shadow mode though that did not last very long as it disappeared only leaving a battered Freed. "Wha?" Was the only thing she managed to say.

"No way, Feed to be taken out so easily." Erza had now begun to worry, it had gone from a four versus two to now a three versus two. Not only that but to make matters worse with Freed gone there was nothing powering the ruin.

"That bitch!"

"Look at that, the ruins are disappearing. Guess I can finally use my full powers. Desert Summons: Giant Sand Golem!" Mesta began gathering sand towards his body as it slowly consumed him until he became a Giant Sand Golem.

"Levy, take freed somewhere safe." Levy was about to protest but Gajeel stopped her before she could. "I know that you wanna help Levy but trust me with a guy like this you'd only get in the way. Besides Freed needs you and Erza, you take on Akira. I got this bastard." Gajeel said with his back towards the girls.

"…OK" Levy ran over to Freed with watery eyes. "Solid Script: Heal!" Her spell managed to hear some of Freed's wounds slightly before placing him on her back before running off.

Erza watched the Solid Script Mage run off with watery eyes. "You didn't have to say it like that. You should consider how Levy feels."

"I don't care how she feels, only if she's safe." Gajeel turned his right hand into a sword.

"Are you sure you can take him on by yourself?" Erza asked cautiously. "Maybe it'll be better if I take care of him."
"No way! This guy's mine! How am I ever going to catch up Salamander if I'm always letting other people handle the top guy!?" Gajeel sighed. "Trust me Erza, I can handle him."

Hearing that Erza remembered all the times that she had put her faith in Natsu when the odds were stacked against him. "Okay, I'll put my faith in you Gajeel. Make sure to take him down." She said before she took off to face Akira leaving Gajeel in his thoughts.

'Yeah, I will.' Gajeel crouched down and faced the sand covered Mesta.

"Full Lunar Beam!" Giant beams coming from the skies rained down on the battle field but thanks to Erza's Flight Armor she had equipped she was able to doge all the incoming projectiles at greats speeds.

Running towards Akira Erza went for a sideways slash using her katana was simply blocked by Akira's Full Lunar Shield. Erza having her attack fail tried to go around fast enough to stab her in the back but was surprised by a blinding light and a strike to her jaw by Akira's back end of her blade-staff.

"Not so fast. Half Moon Projection!" A running bright light shined down the middle of Akira's entire boy splitting her in half creating a duplicate of her. "Crescent Moon Slash!" Both Akira's said in unison brandishing their crescent moon shaped blade and slashing one after another in a fury of attacks one after another, creating large white traveling magic in a crescent shape that ripped up sand in the ground and cut through the air as it crashed against Erza's armor sending her back and cracking various pieces of her armor.

"AHH!" *Thump* Erza skidded across the sandy ground as pieces of her armor fell out. 'Damn it! I can't believe I let her let her get the upper. I mustn't let her win, I won't!' Erza thought as she began getting back up. 'She uses some sort of Magic that has to do with the Moon. I've never encountered this type of magic before.' Erza finally got back to her feet.

"Erza Scarlet: Age 19, Requip Magic User, current Fairy Tail S-Class Guild member, former Slave of the Heavenly Tower, Over 100 Armor Sets, Over 200 weapons, 10 of which to watch out for, and strength only behind Laxus, Makarov, and Guildarts." Akira spoke calmly.

"How do you know all of that about me? Were you expecting me or something?" Erza asked confused as to why this woman would know so much about her as she Requiped the Demon Blade Benizakura as her choice of weapon.

"Oh no, nothing like that at all. Simply put, unlike my Master Mesta, I tend to spend a fair bit of time researching into certain high profile mages throughout Ishgar. I'd imagine how'd you'd be one of the mages that fit that bill. Though I wouldn't have expected to actually face off against someone like you."

"Someone who likes to do tier homework beforehand?"

"I studied your fighting style from watching you at the Grand Magic Games. You could understand I imagine. I mean, trying to ambush us to gain the upper hand, I admire the effort." Akira smiled. "You're guild is quite impressive. I had to research many mages in your guild but three caught my interest one of which is here." Akira glanced at the direction of Gajeel and Mesta a good distance away.

'Gajeel? Why would she be interested in Gajeel?' Erza pondered for a moment before coming to the realization. 'Dragon Slayers! She must be talking about Gajeel, Wendy, and Nasu.'

"Though I am surprised as to why someone like you and your guild-mates would be behind the deaths of many people." Akira spoke with anger behind her voice which caught Erza completely off guard.

"Is this some sort of joke? Kill? Coming from the deviants who slaughtered innocent civilians and soldiers of Desierto just to get power. You people make me sick! I'll be sure to lock you behind bars." Erza declared as she put all her might behind one swing with incredible speed it sliced one of the Akira's in half making he disappear leaving only just one.

"I've got nothing to say to the likes of you." Akira jumped back in the air, landing on her staff that allowing her to float in the air. "Behold, one of my strongest spells in the name of Luna." Akira lifted her hands toward the sky and to Erza it seemed as if the Moon grew in size and began emitting a large amount of magical power. "Dark Side of the Moon!" The moon turned pitch black and so did the entire ground and Erza's field of vision before a large mass of black magic the size of a house was aiming towards the earth where Erza was standing.

Erza knew as soon as she felt that amount of energy that this was no joke. 'You're kidding, right?' Erza forehead began to sweat.

*EXPLOSION~!* *BOOM~~!*

"Ha, ha…ha…I got her…" Akira struggled to breathe as that spell completely drained her of everything she had. She looked at the place where Erza was and was covered in flying sand due to the explosion. 'She really was just as I heard about. If that fight had gone on any longer…' Akira began contemplating thing when the sand began setting when to her Sock Erza was standing in the same place she had been before the attack. "Impossible…" Akira muttered.

"ha…..ha…..ha….ah…..ha….ha" Erza was in even worse shape than Akira. Erza had barely managed to Requip into her Adamantine Armor and use Adamantine Barrier to block the attack.

"I don't understand…how did you manage to block it? How is it you're still standing?" Akira could not believe what she was seeing. A spell that not even Mesta could block in his Giant Sand Demon was only blocked by this redhead but also the fact that she was still standing seemed like something that could never happen in Akira's eyes.

"This… this is… nothing… the… Jupiter Cannon… was worse… and… if I have to endure this… to finally see… the one I wish to find… I'll block a hundred of these if I have to!" Erza stated with confidence even though her legs were twitching indicating she was barely standing.

Akira seeing this opportunity ran at Erza and twister her body three sixty degrees to hit Erza in the back of the head.
Erza seeing her attack, ducked before following that up to an explosive uppercut which sent Akira flying in the air.

Akira landed on the ground, unconscious and it didn't take long for Erza's armor to disappear and for her to fall but was caught by Levy before she could hit the ground. "Oh my god Erza, are you OK?" Levy asked worried that Erza might be really hurt after she saw spell Erza managed to block.

"Yeah, I'll be fine Levy…might want to restrain her though." Erza turned slowly to look at the downed Akira. "Thanks." Erza whispered before passing out.

"You're amazing Erza." Levy spoke in admiration for the Requip Mage. "Solid Script: Cuffs." Levy summoned a set of cuffs on Akira's legs and hands to prevent magic from regenerating then proceeded to drag Erza to a safe place behind a large boulder where Freed was resting at and placed her next to him. She turned to look at Gajeel's fight in the distance and her eyes grew at what she saw.

Both Gajeel and Mesta were starring down at each other until Mesta broke the silence."How about we get on with this already? Let's see if you're actually a challenge little dragon."

"Don't worry I'm much more than that."

"That's what I like to hear!" Mesta jumped in front of Gajeel. "Desert Hammer!" He turned his fist into a giant hammer of sand and brought it down on Gajeel only for it to be cut down by his sword followed by many punches and kicks in the form of Iron Clubs but thanks to his armor he came out unscathed.

"Looks like all you're attacks are ineffective against me." Mesta mocked once again.

"As I said, don't be so cocky. Can't ya tell when someone's sizing you up?" Gajeel smirked. "Iron Dragon's Hard Fist!" Gajeel slammed his iron fist against Mesta's cheekbone crushing his armor and exposing his left side of his face which received a full Iron club kick drawing blood from Mesta's nose.

Mesta flipped around in midair and landed on his feet. "Fuck" Mesta wiped the blood running down his nose. "Bleak Desert Storm!" Mesta threw his arms in the air producing a huge amount of sand flying around surrounding the entire area for miles in all directions. The more and more sand that enveloped the area the darker the air became because the sand blocked out the sun.

"What the hell?" Gajeel stabbed his iron sword onto the ground to fight against the gusts of winds mixed with sand coming from all angles. "It's so dark…" Gajeel struggled to keep his footing before being bombarded with various hits coming from all angles courtesy of the sand flying in the wind which only kept getting stronger with every hit.

"Iron Dragon's Lance!" Gajeel turned both his arms into poles swinging them around violently clearing the area around him giving him the opportunity he needed. "Iron Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel fired off a roar at the sky creating a large opening then crouched down and shot up to propel himself as he used his metallic wings to fly through the opening at great speed. It wasn't long before the hole began closing in but Gajeel managed to get out of the storm just in time to be met face to face with a creature bigger than that of Deliora made only made entirely out of sand.

The creature had long and thin limbs with a wide chest and long narrow head. The face looked like one of a demon with three horns sticking out from the head and sharp teeth both made out of stone.

"What do you think? Pretty impressive huh? I call this guy right here the Protector of The Sand." Mesta spoke at the top of the monster's head. "Nobody has seen this guy and lived to tell about it." He began sinking into the sand until he disappeared.

"Sorry about this little dragon but looks like the fun ends here." The creature's spoke with an eerier voice as if it was whispering.

A drop of sweat dropped from Gajeel's forehead when he saw the size of that monster. 'What the fuck? Is this guy capable of controlling such a thing? His magic abilities are no joke.' Gajeel' thought was cut short seeing an enormous fist coming towards him and doing his best to dodge only to be caught by a kick to his side destroying his dragon scales and causing him to cough up blood the more and more hits he took until he flew back and landed on his back.

"Should've known not to get my hopes up with you." The creature started to walk towards the down Dragon Slayer.

'I got no choice… I have to use it.' Gajeel closed his eyes.

'What the hell is this guy doing?' Mesta thought. "Are you taking a nap or something? Don't tell me that you're already out." The Sand Demon lifted its foot and brought it down to crush Gajeel only for his foot to stop halfway and not budge a single inch farther.

'Huh? What the hell is going on?' Mesta removed his giant foot out of the way to see a few black metallic poles and no sign of the Dragon Slayer. 'Where the fuck did he go?' Mesta turned in all directions in search of the Dragon Slayer to him running up his creature's arm.

Gajeel 's hand turned into a metal claw covered in shadows "Iron Shadow Dragon's Slash!" He slashed at the creature's neck removing much of its armor which slowly began regenerating. "Iron Shadow Dragon's Crushing Sword!" Gajeel spun downward at the Sand "Demon" managing to cut off its hand and proceeded to slice at its neck. "Ha! You call this a demon?"

Mesta seeing one of his most prized spells being taken down by a sole mage began to infuriate him. "Stop fucking with me you little shit!" The sand monster aimed his fist at Gajeel but was cut off by Gajeel's sword as well leaving the monster without arms and missing a large portion of the left side of its neck.

The monster stumbled for a bit as it began absorbing sand to regenerate. "Sand Demon's Bellow!" Mesta emerged at the top of the demons head and aimed his open palm at Gajeel. The sand creature began sucking up the air until it looked bloated.

'Is that thing gonna blow' Gajeel imagined the size of that explosion and just about as Gajeel was about to use his wings as a shield the monster blew sand and air out of his mouth. As it blew more it slowly started to disappear unit all of it was spiraling above Gajeel head and at all his sides completely surrounding him in a dome of spinning sand.

"Iron Shadow Drago-" Gajeel who was about to use one of his most powerful attacks was stopped when a flying sand spike was thrown his direction at such speed he had to use his shadow form to dodge. Then another, then another, then Gajeel was evading the sand spikes coming from everywhere but doing so was draining his magic and he could feel it. As more spikes were thrown the less sand was spinning around and Gajeel noticed that. 'I just have to last a little longer…' Gajeel thought when he no longer had enough magic to sustain his Iron Shadow Dragon Mode and the Iron plate that covered his body were changed back to his original Iron scales and his eyes went back to normal. "Fuck" Gajeel cursed and spikes began hitting his scales, cracking them more and more with each hit until they began chipping off his body exposing his flesh.

*Swoosh* The sound of something ripping through the air made Gajeel's ear perk up and out the corner of his eye he saw a giant sand spike aiming right at him. Thinking fast he turned his foot into an iron club to push himself out of the way as much as he could and used his wings to take most of the impact.

*Crash**Crack**Break*

Gajeel's body was rocked with a heavy pain and he saw his scales falling off his body as he struggled to breathe. "Ha…ha…I made it…ha…" Gajeel managed to get out before he a sharp pain from his stomach to see a large spike sticking out the lower left side of his stomach covered in blood.

"Wha?" Gajeel spoke unsure if this was really happening.

"You shouldn't take your eyes off the enemy, you actually had me worried there for a second little dragon." Mesta whispered before pushing the dragon slayer off his sand spike which extended from his arm leaving the dragon slayer sprawled across the floor dying the sand red.

"Gajeel~~!" Levy screamed with tears in her eyes at what she was seeing. 'No way…Gajeel! Gajeel!' Levy's mind was in full-blown panic mode. Her head was scrambled and didn't know what to do. Freed was badly beaten and Erza was unconscious and even if she could wake her up it was unlikely she would be able to take down Mesta in her state. 'What do I do, what do I do?'

Finally, when she saw Gajeel get pushed off Mesta's sword and fall on the floor where his blood began leaking, she no longer cared and took off to Gajeel.

Gajeel's vision began to turn black as he struggled to keep conscious. 'No…way…' He kept fading in and out of consciousness. He could taste the iron in his mouth as his blood dripped out and down his chin to the sand on the ground. 'This is it huh? Is this how I go out? By some fucking piece of shit who I don't even know who he really is?' Then he heard the voice of a familiar person yell out his name in the distance.

'…Levy? That's right…she is still here…I can't leave her alone.'

Gajeel tied to push himself to stand up but it seemed hopeless finding no strength to do so.

"I do have to say you're pretty resilient. Must be since you're a Dragon Slayer huh?" Mesta spoke as he watched Gajeel's attempt to get back up.

Gajeel gritted his teeth. "Shut up. People like you deserve to rot in hell."

"I'd say the same thing about you." Mesta appeared to be going for the finishing blow.

"Solid Script: Sword!" Mesta was stopped by Levy who launched a the words at him causing him to step back to avoid the hit. "Stay away from him!"

"Oh, I see. He must be your boyfriend. Why else would you throw your life for someone knowing the inevitable?" Mesta looked at Levy with pity as he began approaching her which made her back away. "And for a killer mind you. Love sure exists in every form doesn't it."

"What do you mean killer? Gajeel isn't a killer like you Mesta! The one who butchered the lives of innocents during your war against the king to gain power in Desierto." Levy shouted in anger, tears streaming down her red face. She couldn't believe such a guy would have the nerve to call Gajeel a killer as he's about to kill him right in front of her face.

"That's what they all say." Mesta kept getting closer and closer only being five feet away from Levy.

Having no other option Levy extended both her hand with the pointer finger out and began swirling them in midair as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Hey miss, it's over. Your attacks won't do anything greater than what this g-" Mesta tried to reason with Levy not wanting to kill her too. To Mesta Levy looked like she simply fell for the wrong man and didn't see the need to kill her. The threat she could possibly have didn't seem to be that high. Besides, he wasn't a fan of killing women.

"SOLID SCRIPT ANCIENT ARTS: TIME FREEZE!" Levy shouted as she finned writing her spell which vanished in the air completely freezing time leaving Mesta halfway through talking. Running past Mesta she crouched down in front of Gajeel.

"Oh my god, Gajeel! Solid Scripture: Greater Healing!" Levy pushed herself to find the magic to cast the spell which stopped the blood from leaking and began to close the hole in his stomach even if a little.

Unfreezing Gajeel with a scribble of her finger she quickly took out a thin black bar from her bag. 'I got to be quick! This spell isn't going to last much longer.' Levy thought in a panic even though it had only been a few seconds.

The feeling of newfound energy coursed through Gajeel's body. Although not much it was enough to make him regain consciousness and lift his head up to find Levy staring back at him with tears in her eyes. "L-Levy?" Gajeel asked confused by what was happening. One moment he's bleeding out with a hole in his stomach and now Levy is talking to him like everything is alright.

"it's okay Gajeel, you're safe." Levy whispered more to herself than him. "Here. Take this. I was going to give them to you during… a better time but…" Levy handed Gajeel a black thin rectangular strip and Gajeel took it is his hand before noticing that everything around them was still, frozen in place. Mesta had not moved an inch and everything around them seemed dead. That was the best way he could describe it, the world in a dead silence beside their own thoughts and voices.

Gajeel looking stunned turned to look at levy in her eyes. "Did you do this?" He asked getting a nod from the small mage before everything slowly began to move again and life returned to earth.

"-uy was able to do you know." Mesta felt something was off. Like he'd just awoke from a nap and shook his head to clear the fog in his mind. "Huh? Where's the girl?" Mesta couldn't find her. 'She couldn't have disappeared.'He began looking for her before turning around and finding her kneeling down next to a no longer bleeding and awake Gajeel. 'How the hell did this bitch get over there!? Teleportation?' Mesta was now pissed. Not only did he try to be nice and spare the Solid Script Mage but she ignored him and helped the Dragon Slayer recover instead somehow.

"I'm done playing games here!" Gajeel heard Mesta scream as he shot towards him turning his whole body into a big mound of sand but Levy got in front of him, extending her arms to protect him.

"Levy! What are you doing!? MOVE!" Gajeel couldn't believe it. Levy, the same girl who he'd beaten and hung in a display like a coward was the same girl putting her life at risk for his.

"Move out of the way girl, I'm not stopping for you!" Mesta extended his huge and find and crashed into Levy 's body sending her flying like she was nothing but was caught in midair by Gajeel.

"How the hell are you moving?" Mesta asked but stopped when he heard the sounds of someone eating.

"*chomp**chew, chew, chew*"Gajeel smiled. "GEHE! Looks like I'm not done just yet. Thanks Shrimp, I owe you." Gajeel spoke slightly muffled by the food in his mouth as he lifted up Levy by the back collar of her shirt lifting up her shirt exposing lots of skin of her abdomen. That and the feeling of being lifted like she was a child made her blush red. "So I apologize in advance for this."

"Huh?" Was all Levy got to say before she was thrown far away like a rag doll courtesy of Gajeel. "AH~~! Gajeel~" Levy screamed until she hit the ground hard. "Ow~. Jerk." Levy mumbled.

"*GULP* Ah, that sure was tasty."

Mesta finally realized what the Levy had done. "Oh, I see. You're a Dragon Slayer so you can eat your own element. She must've given you some Iron right? Too bad for you Iron isn't enough to beat my sand." Mesta spoke with a confidence which slowly began disappearing with the amount of magic Gajeel starting emitting. Eventually, the amount of Magic Gajeel was emitting was shooting up in the air all around him making the sand move out from around him and his hair be pulled up in the air above him. He was now covered in a much more silver color than his usual gray. His body was covered in a silver coat of meta. His scales were no longer flat but the ends protrude slightly resembling spikes which covered his arms, knuckles, abdomen, and legs. Sharp metallic claws replaced his nails and his eyes turned fully white and changed shape like when he enters his Iron Shadow Dragon mode.

"Who said I ate Iron." Gajeel's voice was deeper and more menacing than before causing Mesta to cock his head slightly. 'Huh, not iron?'

"Steel Dragon's Solid Club!" Gajeel sent a steel club at Mesta with speed he'd never seen before and didn't even get the chance to react before Gajeel's fist impacted with his chin ripping up some sand that covered him in the process.

'Did he eat…Carbon!?' Mesta tried to regain his footing from the attack and sent a couple of attacks of his own. "Huh?" His attacks seemed to have almost no effect on the Dragon Slayer as he simply brushed all of them aside.

Gajeel jumped to Mesta with more punches and mixing various kicks in all directions until Mesta's armor shattered completely and even then Gajeel didn't let up. He sent punch after punch, and kick after kick.

After receiving the final kick Mesta was sent flying back. His body was covered in bruises, scuff marks, and cuts. Using the lasts of his strength Mesta shoved his hands in the ground. "Great Desert Tsunami!" A large Tsunami big enough to cover an entire town began emerging from the ground ready swallow and bury Gajeel.

"Hahaha, Try and get through that! Now Die!"

"Steel Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel sent out a powerful roar made up of razor-sharp pieces of Steel big enough to engulf and stop Mesta's Tsunami of sand.

Mesta stared with wide eyes at his Tsunami. Never had anyone been able to stop it before. Evade, yes but even then he could count those people on one hand but nobody had ever stopped his spell which had the power to wipe out a platoon of soldiers or wipe out a town in one swoop. "N-No way…" Mesta's shock was relatively short-lived when a flying Gajeel with wings was headed towards him with his fist cocked back and a menacing smile on his face.

"Steel Dragon's Crushing Fist!" Gajeel delivered the final blow to Mesta stomach causing to bend forward and cough up a great deal of saliva and blood, mostly blood before being sent flying back with such strength that he rolled on the ground several times before coming to a complete stop. Several gashes appeared all over his body and a few bones seemed to be broken with his right arm's bone poking out of his flesh and his eyes could be seen white as can be and his skin pale in comparison to before. He was out before he even hit the ground which was now covered in blood.

"*Wheeze*….*Pant*…Ha~….Ha~…" Gajeel heaved as he placed both hands on his knees for support. "Ha… finally got… that fight… I… was looking for…." Gajeel's armor faded away and he returned to normal. Gajeel dragged himself to the unconscious Mesta and placed iron shackles on his hands and ankles.

As soon as Gajeel finished and stood up he was tackled by a crying girl wrapping her arms around his. "Ooof! SASS." Gajeel hissed in pain.

"Gajeel~! I'm so g-glad you're safe! I saw the h-hole in you-and I saw him about to k-kill you-and… and…" Levy sputtered as best she could through her crying. After a while, she calmed down for a bit and looked at his eyes and then all over his body. His body was still in bad shape. He had cuts and bruises on his arms, legs, and torso. He had blood coming from his mouth and down his chin. Blood stained his clothes from where he'd been pierced, and the hole in his stomach which had been the reason for most of that blood, while a lot less than before was still there, if every slightly. Seeing this tears began welling up in her eyes again. 'He could've died.' Was the thought that kept repeating in her mind.

Closing her eyes to try and stop any more tears from leaking out Levy shut her eyes. The feeling of something on her head made her open her eyes. Gajeel was patting her head with a small grin making her face go red. 'Jeez~.' Levy turned away from him so in an attempt to hide her face.

Gajeel saw her reaction and internally laughed. 'She's actually kinda…cute.' Gajeel thought before he couldn't help himself and he snickered out loud.

"Jeez~ you're such a meanie." Levy muttered softly which only caused the Dragon Slayer to laugh even more before beginning to violently cough up blood.

"Gajeel! Gajeel! What's wrong Gajeel!?" Levy rushed to Gajeel's side as she watched him begin to cough up blood but it was of now use as he fell onto the floor and closed his eyes as sweat began forming on his forehead.

"Oh my god! Gajeel!" Levy shouted as she tried to wake the Dragon Slayer up. It seemed to be that he didn't die which greatly relieved the Solid Script Mage but it seemed something was really wrong with him. She began to think of possibility until she heard a voice from the ground were Mesta was laid out.

"Haha...hahaha" Mesta struggled to laugh through the immense pain he was going through but laughed nonetheless. "He's going to die soon...I can always count of Akira." He paused and looked directly at Levy who was starring at him with wide eyes. "You see, she never... underestimates the enemy." Mesta smiled.

THE SAME DAY IN THE EARLY MORNING

Lisanna began to stir as she felt something pushing up against her face. She opened her eyes to the surprise of being crushed face first against Cana's soft breasts with Cana wrapping her hands around her head. Levy's eyes grew wide and didn't know what to do. Her face began getting hot and turned a good shade of red. She turned her head to look for Mira who luckily was still asleep. She looked at the window and by the looks of it, it was still very early morning.

'A-Amazing…Cana has such large breasts. I wish I was a little more grown up.' Lisanna thought sadly as her hand slowly reached to touch Cana's left breast causing Cana to stir. After waiting a while she gave her breast a firm squeeze which made Cana moan softly.

"S-So soft." Lisanna whispered as she gave it a few more squeezes. 'Hehe~. Is this why guys like these so much?' Lisanna's gaze turned to Cana's pink nipple just begging to be fondled and her hand went to pinch and pull her nipple causing a much louder moan to escape from Cana's mouth.

"Hmmm~." Cana moaned due to the pleasure of having nipple played with.

Lisanna, who still had her face pressed against Cana's breath could smell a light scent of alcohol but it was overpowered by the sweet scent of flowers. "Cana smells so good!" Lisanna began deeply inhaling Cana's scent.

What Lisanna had failed to notice was two cat ears on top of her head and a tail coming out of their own volition while she was enjoying playing with Cana's body. 'This is amazing, I want more.' Lisanna thoughts grew in lust. She opened her mouth and plopped Cana's right nipple into her mouth making the Card mage moan even more than before. 'Oh no, I must be going through heat! It's this stupid cat soul!' Lisanna felt her body heat up. She had gone through this before, opting to stay home because she was "Sick" after informing Mira what she was going through.

"Ah~, Hn~, Mm~." Cana's moans increased in frequency as Lisanna fondling grew more and more bold as she began sucking and rubbing her tongue all over Cana's nipple, enjoying the taste. 'It's so hard now… I can't stop' Lisanna kept playing with Cana's nipple completely engrossed in her actions, she failed to notice that Mira had woken up.

"Enjoying yourself are you Lisanna?" Mira asked the clueless mage in a merry voice while emitting a dark aura.

"Yeah!" Lisanna answered without thinking. A few moments passed by until she realized what had happened, stopped what she was doing and slowly turned around to face Mirajane."AH! S-Sis! I-I…this is-uh-uh. What I mean-or…I-uh." Lisanna was pale, stuttering at every sentence to explain herself but could not come up with anything to excuse her naughty behavior.

"I didn't know my little sister was a pervert this whole time." Mira spoke bluntly.

"N-No! It's not that! It's just-" Lisanna was knocked out by a well-placed fist to the head.

Turning to look at the Card mage who was fully naked and had a pleased look her face made a tick mark appear on Mira's forehead. 'Great, technically I'm dealing with two perverts.' Mira sighed. "CANA! Put some damn clothes on!" Mira yelled which cause Cana to fall off the bed. Cana was still half asleep and even then Mira forced her to put a bra and panties before going back to bed all the while Cana grumbled about in her half drunken state.

Authors Note: Next chapter will release around May 10 or 17th if everything goes well so look forward! Maybe I'll release something small for Cinco de Mayo too. Also, hope you guys enjoyed the final bit in there. I thought it was a little funny and had some fun writing that haha.