Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or companies. I make no money from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories.

The Port Town of Alabon

Xander's POV

"SonuvaBITCH!" he exclaimed as he used shunpo to save another pair of people from the incoming cannon fire.

When he and Lahar had returned to the Royal Guard barracks they hadn't even been able to take a step before the place exploded in their faces. The guardsmen stationed there had either been killed instantly by the blast or seriously wounded by the shrapnel. Only luck and a few swings with his sealed sword had kept Lahar and him from getting skewered on a fragment of wood, stone or steel. Just the same, though, things had gone downhill drastically from there with the storehouses blowing up, and then the cannons on the navy vessels opening up on the town, so he figured that that was the only luck he'd be getting.

"Get out of here!" he told the duo he'd rescued. "Get as far away from the city as possible! Hurry!"

Needless to say the petrified people wasted no time in obeying his commands, running as fast as they could up the road that led out of Alabon.

"We need to do something about those cannons!" he said, turning to Lahar, who looked to be more than a bit overwhelmed by what was going on. "If we don't the entire town'll be ruins inside of a day."

"But how? The ships are too far out and any boat that approaches will get blasted out of the water!" Lahar said, pointing out a very real problem.

"Then I won't go by boat," he said, a plan coming together. It wasn't a great plan but it was what he had to work with.

Bringing one foot up, he channeled some of his spiritual energy to the bottom of it and, when he put it down, instead of dirt holding him up it was his own power. To Lahar it probably looked like he was walking on air but the truth of the matter was that he was creating a solid mass for his foot to stand on and hold his weight. It wasn't a lot of energy and, once you got the knack of it, you barely even realized that you were using any. He took another step and then put a mass of energy beneath the other foot so that he was then completely off the ground. Once he was sure that he could count on the air walking technique he performed shunpo, taking off for the boats that were currently bombarding the port town.

Cannons weren't exactly precision weapons and neither could they be fired rapidly no matter how much their wielders wanted it. With a target his size and moving as swiftly as he could, it would take inhuman insight and cunning to even come close to landing a hit.

Now the only question was how to take out the cannons so they couldn't damage the town any more than they already had.

As the closest navy vessel chose to try their luck with him, he decided to see how tough a challenge was before him with a way of destruction spell.

"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws!" he said before aiming the palm of his right hand at the ship firing at him. "Way of destruction number thirty-three: Sōkatsui!"

A directed blast of neon blue energy shot out of his hand toward the ship with a width comparable to a wrecking ball. It crossed the distance between him and the cannons facing the shore on the closest ship in no time at all, striking with explosive force. It wasn't until the smoke cleared though that he could see that his attack had succeeded in destroying the cannon he'd aimed for, also tearing up the wood around it. It proved that a thirties level spell could indeed succeed in destroying a navy cannon but, with anywhere from three to four facing the shore per ship and five ships in the harbor, that meant he had nineteen more to destroy. That would take precious time though and with every shot fired more innocent people would die.

That was unacceptable.

Better to try and sink the entire boat rather than destroy the cannons one by one, he thought as he went for a spell that was twice as powerful as Sokatsui.

Adjusting his aim to go for the waterline on the side of the ship, he brought forth the palm of his right hand and began the incantation.

"Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle!" he declared as he felt the power well up within him. "Way of destruction number sixty-three: Raikōhō!"

Gathering golden energy became a sphere in front of his right palm, growing to the size of a basketball, crackling with electricity like a barely contained thunderstorm. When it reached the limit of what it could contain, the energy was released in the form of a massive lightning bolt that crossed the sky like the real deal. With great force it pierced the hull of the ship and even temporarily electrified the water around the vessel before water began to rush into the new hole that he'd made. Given its size, he doubted it'd take very long at all for it to sink beneath the surface so he worried about it no further moving onto the next ship.

Over and over again he used the golden lightning spell to blast holes in the hulls of the attacking ships, guaranteed to sink every last one of them swiftly.

The only down side of that was the fact that it consumed a quite a bit of spiritual energy each time he used it, so when the final ship had sunk more than halfway into the sea he flash stepped back to Alabon. Feeling as though he'd just been through a tougher than usual series of warm up exercises, he hoped that with the heavy artillery all taken care of whoever was behind everything would rethink their plans. After all, when some of your biggest guns were rendered useless, it was a good reason to reexamine your plan and make some changes.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, he turned his head to see Cana and, not far behind her, Lieutenant Lahar.

"Xander! Did you stop them?" Cana asked as she arrived at his side.

"Yep! The navy ships are sinking to the bottom of the sea as we speak," he replied with his lopsided grin. "Any bandits that swim to shore will be too tired to put up much of a fight, so whatever guardsmen can still walk shouldn't have any trouble rounding them up."

"Did you really need to sink the ships?" Lahar asked, sounding only mildly put out by the losses. "They aren't cheap to build."

He was tempted to call the man on valuing the navy ships over the people of Alabon but he decided to let the matter slide, given the rough day they'd had so far; a near miss at an attacked convoy, the destruction of who knew how many buildings, deaths as well as injuries aplenty, and cannon bombardment from sea.

Anyone would be a little off in the head after that.

"It would've taken too long to take out the cannons one by one. People were DYING, Lahar," he replied, showing no doubt. "I made the choice that'd save the most lives. That's what mattered to me."

"I understand," Lahar said, his anger fading in the face of the words spoken. "I will try to convey this point of view to the Magic Council in my report."

Rolling his eyes at that last bit he said, "Thanks. Now let's go round up the bandits so we can interrogate them and figure out where their base of operations is."

Heading towards the shoreline that was closest to the ships he sunk, he felt as though they'd come to a major turning part in the request Cana had picked out.

So why was he only hearing one additional set of footsteps instead of two.

Turning around, he saw that Cana was still where she'd been before and for some reason her gaze was locked on the sea as though she'd miss something important if she turned away for even a second. His brow furrowed in confusion because, in his opinion, a couple of sinking ships and some bandits swimming for shore didn't warrant that kind of attention. Turning to look where she was he focused, his eyes to try to see what was so captivating but could see nothing… not at first.

It was only moments later that he noticed an unnatural set of concentrated bubbles popping on the surface of the water that couldn't just be explained away as air escaping from the sinking ships.

For one thing the bubbles were happening much closer to shore than where the sinking ships were all of which he could still see poking out of the water.

For another, the size of the bubbles was easily three times the size of the Royal Guard Navy ships making a connection impossible.

It was only when he saw arrow shaped masses of metal break the water's surface at edge of the bubbles closest to the shore that the truth began to reveal itself. Bigger and bigger each mass of metal grew until it became clear that each of them were vessels, submarines of a design he'd never seen before, and they were easily three times the size of the navy ships.

Not only three times the size but also three times as many ships as the Royal Guard previously had guarding the harbor.

"What the hell…" he gasped as his mind fought to make rational sense of what he was seeing.

When all the large submarines finished surfacing they began moving towards the shoreline at what could be considered cruising speed for a sailing ship. Without a moment's hesitation he changed the direction he'd been heading and flash stepped for where he figured the ships would run aground once the water got shallow enough. A little while later and he arrived, sealed zanpakuto at the ready because it didn't take a rocket scientist to know that the ships were not coming to say that they came in peace. The timing was far too close to bombings and the bombardment for it to not be all related.

As the ships got to about thirty feet away from the shoreline their fronts rose up until he could almost see the bottoms and each of them line up no more than fifteen feet from each other. He wondered how long he'd have to wait to find out what all this was about but it turned out he didn't need to. With the sound of gears turning, metal screeching, the front ends of the submarines opened up like great sea beasts opening their mouths wide, as if to swallow whole anyone who got too close.

It was when the mouths were two thirds of the way open he saw what lay within and he realized his earlier prediction of an invasion had been right on the mark.

Never in all his life did he wish more that he'd been wrong.

Filling the interior of the submarines almost to full capacity were people that could only be called soldiers, all of them armed either with conventional melee weaponry or mage weaponry. It made him think that whoever had designed the submarines had done so specifically with carrying the maximum number of people possible as a top priority. Unlike the submarines back home, a lot of space could be saved using magic to accomplish the same things that science did and, if the distance they'd had to travel was short enough, even more space could be freed up.

Whatever the case, he could tell that the number of soldiers in the one ship in front of him numbered in the hundreds, with each of them looking eager to stretch their legs and vent their pent up energy. While he knew it was pointless, he decided that he might as well give it a shot if only to buy Lahar and Cana time. He didn't know what they'd be able to do in that short time but he still thought it was the best move to give what he could.

Even a minute could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

"Welcome to Alabon, ladies and gentlemen! Now I'm afraid we have a strict no pillaging, plundering and killing policy here, so I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave your weapons behind!" he said, trying to sound polite and non-confrontational. "And any unnecessary roughhousing or misbehavior will result in punishment proportional to the deed. Other than that, feel free to enjoy all the things that make the town great."

"Well, well, well! I can honestly say I didn't expect this to be the first reaction I got when the doors opened," a jovial voice said and the crowd of submarine occupants parted, revealing a tall man in a coat with quite a few blades sheathed on it. "While I thank you for your most gracious greeting I'm afraid that I along with everyone else here are going to have to ignore your rules. You see we quite like pillaging and plundering, raping and killing, torturing and hunting wherever we go. True, our employers said to keep the hot shots of this town alive but everyone else is free for whatever we feel like doing."

"And here I was hoping we could all get along!" he sighed as he mentally prepared himself for what was likely to happen next. "If you don't mind me asking, what's your employer paying all of you? If it's not too unreasonable I'm sure the mayor or perhaps even the king would be willing to pay it if it'd keep things peaceful. After all, if we start fighting then there's going to be pain, suffering and probably a fair number of you are going to die. I'd think that that last part would be a problem for a lot of you."

"Actually pain and death are our greatest highs. Allow me to introduce myself," the blade man said before performing a mocking bow. "Master Vladimir Grachev of the dark guild Death's Head Caucus. And you?"

"Alexander Yamamoto of the legal guild Fairy Tail," he replied, figuring it was only polite to complete the introductions. "I've heard of your guild. You take only assassination requests and have quite a long, bloody list of successes to your name. I don't suppose you could at least tell me what this is all about? Just so we both know what this fight'll be all about."

"Well we do enjoy our work. As for what this is all about? I don't know what the big picture is but in the short term we've been told to take control of Alabon by any means we feel like so long as the hot shots running the place don't die," Master Grachev replied, a creepy smile growing on his face. "As for our motivation… it'll be a little killing, a little torturing, a little raping and a couple million jewel to be divided up according to who gets the highest kill count."

"Then you can pretty much cast me in the role of the hero that's going to stop you," he growled as he saw the man and his crew as being no better than a vampire. "Whether or not its jail or the grave you wind up in is entirely up to you."

He knew it was a bluff.

They knew it was a bluff.

But it had to be said just the same.

With the royal guards all but decimated, the only defense the people of Alabon had was him, Lahar and Cana. That was nowhere near enough to hold off a veritable army of killers. The fact that the Master of the dark guild had said that they were ordered to secure the town rather than simply do what was in their nature to do implied that Alabon would be needed for some future phase of the overall plan. If it was indeed an invasion, then it was possible that these guys were just meant to secure a beachhead for the rest of the invasion force. While it would be an almost insurmountable task, if he could somehow manage to make securing the town impossible it might discourage the rest of the invasion force from advancing for a while.

Not forever, but long enough for the Fiore military and the Rune Knights to send a force to take over opposing them.

"You've got guts kid," Master Grachev said as his creepiness went up a notch. "…I look forward to slicing you open and playing with them!"

And with that the diplomacy portion of this get together is over with! he thought as he immediately began to raise the strength of his spiritual energy. Here's hoping that enough people have gotten away from the docks so it doesn't interfere with the evacuation.

Feeling and, to a degree, seeing his spiritual energy take the form of fire, he could also see that his proximity to them was causing the weaker among the invasion force to have a little trouble standing up. For Master Grachev and what he suspected were the stronger members of the invasion force, they might have noticed a change in the air and maybe the need for an increase in effort but not enough to be inconvenienced. Nevertheless it would reduce the number of enemies he was going to have to deal with, something he would never be against no matter what the circumstances.

Be safe Kagura! Cana!

Cana's POV

"Cards magic: Lightning, Reverse Tower, Lovers! Rakurai no Unmei!" she declared before her magic discharged bolts of lightning in all directions, striking the armed men that'd surrounded her.

With formidable strength her attacks struck, knocking her attackers silly and thankfully rendering them unconscious. However she did not smile because she knew that more would come soon enough and block her efforts to get to Xander, who from the sound of it was stirring up quite the ruckus. She'd felt his power soar before all the unknown soldiers and hostile mages showed and it hadn't gone away since then, so she knew he was still in the fight. However, with the sheer scale of what was going on, there was no way that he could last very long on his own without backup, hence why she was doing her best to get to him. However every time she thought she had a clear path, she'd run into another batch of trouble she'd have to fight her way through.

Turning to look behind her, she could see that Lieutenant Lahar was just finishing up the latest of his rune barriers that would prevent anyone from moving further out of town. As soon as they'd seen the ships the two of them had known what was about to happen and what might happen if the invading force spread past the town's outer edge, so while they had worked to get to Xander's position, they'd also done what they could to keep the invaders contained, thus giving the evacuees time to get away.

"Are the runes finished, Lahar?" she asked as she listened for sounds of new foes while also checking her supply of magic cards.

"Almost… THERE! This set of runes is finished but keep in mind that I'm only able to construct the simplest of rune barriers to block off the street," Lahar replied as the light from his staff faded away. "It won't take them long to break it either with brute force or using a mage familiar with word-based magic."

"Even if it only buys the citizens of Alabon a minute for every barrier broken, that'll still give them more time that they would've without them. Buying time is about the only thing we can do right now."

Indeed, against this many enemies even two Fairy Tail mages and a rune knight would not be able to slow the invaders down, never mind actually send them packing. It was her and Lahar's plan to get to Xander and then create an opening for all three of them to get out of Alabon so that the rune knight could use the long range communications lacrima at a nearby watch post to summon help. Only by bringing forth the army of Fiore and every Rune Knight capable of reaching Alabon in the next forty-eight hours could they win. Only such a force could stand a chance at pushing the invaders out of Fiore.

"Then let's get to Alexander quickly. The longer we remain in Alabon, the less chance we have of escaping it safely," Lahar said as they both began to run for the docks where Xander waited.

Lady Luck proved to be with them when only one or two invaders got in their way at any one time, allowing them to easily be dispatched in two or three attacks. Still, it took them almost fifteen minutes to reach Xander's position but, when they arrived, she beheld a sight that was both awe inspiring and at the same time awful.

Flitting back and forth at high speed, only becoming visible for as long as it took to attack a group of invaders, was Xander, who looked to be going all out to keep things contained to the beach. The awe inspiring part was that he was actually managing to keep a fair number of them pinned in between his assaults and the transportation that'd discharged them. The sheer number of them should've overwhelmed him inside of the first minutes of combat but instead Xander's speed and power was making it quite difficult for the invaders to strike back. The end result was that, while Xander was keeping most of the invading force from entering Alabon and moving onto Fiore, there was the occasional trickle that managed to slip through his efforts.

The awful part was that while it did not happen often, there was a rare time when one of the people that stepped off the vessels managed to land a blow. The solidness of the contact varied but her eyes could tell that the damage was mounting up just the same. Seeing the bloody tears in his white haori and swelling beginning to show on his face, it was evident that as skilled as Xander was, he did not have the ability to fight so many successfully.

It was a lost cause.

"Lahar, use the ice lacrima you salvaged from the barracks to seal up the entrances to the ships," she ordered even as she filled both her hands with magic cards. "I'll clear the space around Xander to give him a way out."

"Right!" Lahar said as he pulled out two orbs from a medium sized sack he'd been carrying.

With timing that was passable they attacked their respective targets, Lahar with his ice lacrima while she executed Summoned Lightning along with Sun's Strength, disrupting the activity temporarily and providing her with the opening she needed to get to Xander.

"Cana! Nice of you to join the party!" Xander said, coming to a stop and barely showing any pain at all as a result of his wounds.

"Party's over," she said as she reached his side. "Let's get out of here. This is more than we signed on for."

"As much as I'd like to, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no," Xander said even as he watched for a slightest sign that the ice was about to break or those that'd been shocked were recovering. "Right now these guys are contained here at the docks. If they get out of Alabon, they'll raise all kinds of hell in Fiore before they're stopped. And this is just the advance force."

"What do you mean?" Lahar asked even as he took out two more spheres of ice lacrima.

"I don't know how much what he said can be trusted but Master Grachev said he and his guild had been hired to capture the Alabon VIPs, as well as secure the town itself," Xander replied as cracks began to form in the ice capping the entrances of the vessels. "That tells me that they're just here to secure a landing point for a larger invading army. If we let them have the harbor town, we'll be opening Fiore to the horrors of war."

"He's probably bluffing," she said, unwilling to believe that things would get that bad. "He's banking on you believing him so you'll run, letting him and his goons strip this place to the foundation of everything worth anything before escaping."

"No. If Master Grachev is THE Master Grachev of the dark guild Death's Head Caucus, then money would be just a pleasant bonus. According to what I've read of his file, his real motivation for taking assignments is the act of killing whoever he's been hired to kill," Lahar said, sounding like fear was beginning to put pressure on his composure. "It's a point of view that's shared by the majority of the dark mages in his guild. For the Master to be involved directly, he must have been promised an ideal opportunity to indulge in his bloody tendencies."

This did NOT improve how she felt, instead sending it spiraling deeper into dread.

"Whoever he is or whatever he wants to do doesn't matter," she said, unwilling to let things continue in the direction Xander wanted. "We need to get out of here! I don't like the idea of running any more than you do, Xander, but be reasonable! We're just three people against an army! It'd be suicide to stay!"

"I'm afraid I must agree with Miss Alberona," Lahar said, sounding totally in favor of leaving. "We have neither the numbers nor the strength to fight such a large force on our own. Our priority must be to get outside the interference field and summon reinforcements. With the full force of Fiore's military mightm we can reclaim Alabon later on OUR terms, not their terms."

"Fight and win? No, you're right about that. But running now will just give them a chance to fortify the city and make it that much more costly to take back. You two leave if you want, get outside the communications jamming zone and call for help, but I'm staying here to cause them as much trouble as I can," Xander said, making it clear he would not run even if it was the saner choice. "While they're busy trying to chop me into chum they won't be able to do much else. Assuming you can get outside the jamming zone in the next three hours, Lahar, how long would it take for the military and Rune Knights to get here with enough people to kick these assholes out of Fiore?"

"…At least a day. The nearest garrison of Fiore soldiers is twenty hours march from here. The fastest they could mobilize in sufficient numbers would be three to four hours. Possibly more if they need to recall men from leave," Lahar said after a few seconds of consideration. "As for the Rune Knights, they're further away but we have mages capable of teleportation magic that should allow us to travel the necessary distance, but they can only take a handful of people at a time. To move a force large enough to counter the invaders will take time, to say nothing of getting authorization from the Magic Council for such a deployment. My comrades would likely arrive at about the same time as the Fiore military."

Twenty-four hours holding a force this size back!? Impossible!

"This is ridiculous, Xander! You know it's not the Fairy Tail way to treat one's life as something worthless!" she said insistently in order to break through his stupid heroics. "Stay here to fight and that's exactly what you'll be doing!"

A look came over Xander's face just then but not the one she'd been hoping for. She'd been hoping for it to be a look of defeat, of concession, that would be followed by him agreeing to leave Alabon while they still could. Instead it was a look of kindness, understanding and appreciation but with the resolve in his eyes undimmed.

"Believe me, Cana, I don't want to die any more than the next person. Since I became a member of Fairy Tail it's come to feel like home in more ways than one. Even back home with my old friends it'd never been this good," Xander said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "That being said, leaving these guys to do as they please… that's something I can't do. They're too much like the scum I'd sworn on my brother Jesse's grave to fight with everything I had. Plus, if they're allowed to dig in here, the body count on our side to kick them out will be way too high. Please. Find Kagura and work with Lahar to evacuate as many people as possible. I promise I won't take any reckless chances."

As touched as she was by him vocalizing his bond with Fairy Tail, she couldn't help but be hurt by his refusal to leave a place that was dangerous for someplace that was safe. It wasn't that she was a coward or anything. No one in Fairy Tail really was when it counted. But neither were they stupid enough to take on so many enemies. Maybe Mystogan, Laxus or… or… HE could face a force this size and survive the day it took for reinforcements to arrive, but Xander wasn't S-class yet and wouldn't be for a couple of years at least. He had the potential for it, everyone in the guild could sense it, but he still had a long way to go before that potential became fully developed.

Potential that stood a VERY good chance of being destroyed if he stayed here.

That being said, she didn't think she'd be able to force him to leave against his will. Even if she tried to use her Sleep Card to knock him out, he'd probably just flash step away before it could take full effect, putting them all in even worse a situation than before.

Thus SHE was the one who gave in.

"Fine! We'll go but I swear if you're not alive and kicking when this is all over, I'll find a resurrection spell just to bring you back so I can kick your ass!" she said, grabbing the front of his kosode and pulling him forward. "Got it?!"

"Yep! Loud and clear!" Xander replied, looking appropriately afraid of her threat so she let him go.

"C'mon, Lahar! We've got a teenage girl to find and some people to herd out of town!" she said before running for the nearest city street.

Don't die, Xander! she thought vigorously even as she hoped that Mirajane never heard about this little moment.

The Streets of Alabon

Kagura's POV

She was scared.

Very, VERY, scared!

She hadn't been this scared since that terrible day when the cultists had come to her village, killing some while taking others to do who knew what. When it had all been over with she'd still been afraid but her desire to find her brother and reunite their family had been strong enough to override that fear. She'd braved many dangerous situations to find her brother, gotten through situations that chipped away at her innocence until only a sliver remained by her estimation, but this attack was bringing the fear all back. The only reason why she was even marginally in control was because people's lives were depending on her and losing her head would only get them dead. She had to be like that redheaded girl who'd put her in the firewood container before being caught herself. She'd been able to see the fear even as young as she'd been, but that hadn't stopped the person she did not know from doing the right thing.

So she would not let her fear keep her from doing the right thing.

"This way! Hurry!" she yelled back at the crowd of people following her.

She'd done the best she could to find as many people as possible, even managing to rescue a few from beneath rubble with a little bit of help, but now they were doing their best to navigate the devastated town to get out. It was not easy since, even with knowledge of the layout of the town, they'd come across obstructions in the form of debris and fire. However, by cutting through buildings, they were making progress and, while it was difficult to see with the black smoke in the air, she was sure it wouldn't be long now before they escaped the chaos. When that happened…when that…

She didn't know what she'd do after that because, even while her heart wanted to go back and help Xander, her brain viewed the chaos and knew she could do nothing for the guy who'd rescued her from Metia. The power at play, the numbers, for her to even think that she could do anything with the dagger she'd purchased in secret was insane and made her wonder why she'd put so much faith in the simple weapon. The only thing she could do was get as many people as she could to safety and wait for Xander and Cana to return.

Going around the corner, instinct more than anything caused her to hop back the way she came but it was a good thing she had since a spearhead attached to a barbed length of chain struck the street where she'd been. Seeing the chain then retract, she followed it to its source. What she found was four men all armed with weapons and none of them looking like they meant well for the collection of fleeing citizens, or herself for that matter.

"Lucky! We're so lucky guys!" the chain wielder said as he caught the small handle grip beneath the spearhead. "I thought we'd get stuck standing around until the real fighting started but here we got some toys to play with. Should liven things up somewhat, eh?"

"I don't know about that, Hanzo," a man wielding twin kilijs with serrated edges. "None of'em look armed with anything better than a pitchfork and that girl only dodged on luck. They might as well be target posts for all the trouble we'll have soaking our blades in their blood."

"I don't really care either way, Yusuf," spoke a brute of a man wielding a large polearm hammer with a head twice the size of a blacksmith's anvil. "My hammer needs a fresh coat of blood and it'll be less of a bother if the bottles don't fight back."

"You're such a lazy bum, Ivan," snapped a man with metal gauntlets whose fingers had been sharpened into talons. "It's why you'll never get noticed by Master Grachev."

"Shut up Richard," Ivan said as he brought his hammer into a ready position. "You got no room to talk with the way you come back all beat up from a job."

"That's only 'cause feeling a bit of pain yerself makes the pain you give others all the sweeter!" Richard said before scraping the talons of his gauntlets together, producing little sparks. "I hope that girlie will be able to cut me at least once. It'd be a downer if she couldn't."

They were going to kill her!

They were going to kill her and all she had was a small dagger to fight back with.

Her body shook with fear even as she tried to fight against it and she realized that her earlier desire to be seen as an adult was nothing more than a teenager's foolish arrogance. It was just that she believed that a child could never hope to find her brother and a teenager was still an amateur but an adult could handle it no problem. However becoming an adult naturally was taking too long so she'd been determined to force it to happen through action rather than through experience and learning. Now, though… now she wished that she'd listened to Cana and just stayed in the room they'd rented upon arriving in Alabon and then left the second the commotion began.

Now she was at the edge of a terrible abyss and she knew not what she could do to keep from being cast into it.

"If you boys are looking for that kind of a good time, maybe I'll be more your speed."

Looking down at the source of the voice, she saw N'atrina standing a few steps ahead of her as though she intended to fight the quartet herself.

"A talking cat?" Hanzo asked in mild befuddlement. "Now there's something you don't see every day."

It was nice to know that she wasn't the only one thrown by the concept.

"I wonder if it screams like a person, too." Hanzo said as he twirled his chain in preparation to strike.

"If it's screams you want, asshole…" N'atrina said as a magic circle appeared beneath her, "…then I hope you each have a good set of lungs in you, 'cause it'll be you all doing the screaming!"

The light of the magic circle flared up, almost being bright enough to force people to look away, but it was the effect that the light was having on the feline that had her attention. With a transformation process that she had nothing to compare it to, the cat began to grow in size even as its parts began to take on decidedly more human shapes. When N'atrina's form reached the equivalent of a twenty-something woman's form the light of the magic flashed brighter than ever, temporarily blinding all who'd been looking at it. When the vision of all returned, standing where the feline had been was a woman with flowing black hair and skin that was pale blue, with fingernails sticking out of each digit and looking quite sharp. Clad in fitting shorts and shirt with a cool jacket to top it all off, she had no trouble admitting that it looked rather scary, especially with the toothy smile that promised much pain.

Without further speaking the former feline turned demon woman charged the four men, claws growing along the way until they measured a full ten inches, looking VERY sharp. To their credit the four hostile men didn't let their shock over what'd happened freeze them for too long and, by the time that their new opponent arrived, they were more or less ready.

Yusuf tried first with his twin kilijs but, with the grace as well as the agility of her former form, N'atrina evaded his attacks, sliding between or around them, lashing out with her vicious claws at random and creating bloody gashes where they landed. While some might've been worried the wounds were actually not that deep and, based on what she'd learned watching Xander's sparring sessions with Erza, weren't near any major arteries.

She was playing with her foe!

"C'mon! Is that all ya got?" N'atrina asked mockingly before delivering a spinning heel kick to her opponent's jaw, sending him flying to the ground several feet away.

"Don't think you're going to get lucky twice, demon!" Ivan yelled as he swung his great hammer with a surprising amount of speed that almost allowed it to graze its target.

"Mirajane Strauss is Fairy Tail's Demon but thanks for the compliment!" N'atrina said with a fanged smile as she back flipped over a follow up swing.

Seeing the fight going on, it was surreal because, logically, in a four on one fight, you expected the single person to be straining to stay alive unless they were VERY strong. In front of her, though, the former feline didn't look like she was straining in the least but rather was playing with her foes while doing damage when the opportunity arose. Narrowing her eyes, she looked for the reason and found it when she took into account the position of each fighter and the chances they had to attack. Whether the evil men knew it or not, N'atrina was deliberately moving herself to always put one of them in the way of another's attack, causing them to hesitate for a few moments.

A few moments was all the not-cat needed to streak forth and strike the uncertain person hard enough to remove him from the fight temporarily.

More and more this went on until all four hostile men looked like they were VERY tired and VERY pissed.

"I'm gonna make you suffer for MONTHS!" Richard roared, clearly furious at being played with.

"Talk is cheap, shit for brains!" N'atrina scoffed as she stood confidently yet still ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. "Show me action!"

"You're gonna regret those words, bitch!" Hanzo snarled even as his weapon began to take on an eerie red glow. "We were holding back so our fun could last longer but now I say FUCK THAT! This is where we start getting serious!"

The hope she'd felt when she'd seen how easily Xander's cat was dancing around the four began to drop as dangerous magical energy emerged from within each of the weapons. She'd thought all this time that they were just dangerous men who were skilled in their respective weapons but nothing more than that. Now she realized that far from being ordinary they were actually magical weapons, meaning each of them possessed an attribute to give them the potential for greater damage. If they turned out to be too much then that'd put her as well as the civilians behind her right back where they'd been before: helpless before the executioner's block.

Hanzo was the first to attack with his energized weapon but, unlike before, its speed had skyrocketed even as crimson electricity danced across the dangerous metal. This time it was N'atrina who likely managed to evade only through instinct because, to her eyes, it was hard to tell whether the weapon made contact or not.

Yusuf struck next but instead of closing the gap he merely swung his swords, causing a black whirlwind to blow across the distance, intent on taking advantage of N'atrina's airborne state. With its size and velocity she was certain that it'd do serious damage if it hit but a new surprise kept that from happening.

Out of nowhere a shadow close to where the former feline was extended outwards, providing the woman with the means to ascend even higher, evading the wind attack if only by a hair.

Ivan struck next, executing a thunderous hammer blow to the ground, causing shockwaves that caused her to strain to stay on her feet while the other citizens got knocked on their butts. In addition bits of stone erupted from the ground, striking the unwary but, whether it was due to her former feline status or prior training, N'atrina managed to stay upright.

It was with practiced ease that Richard went on the offensive next, his deadly gauntlets glowing orange as though they'd come out of the forge. A vicious right slash tried to take off one of the blue skinned woman's legs but only made contact with one of the new rocky outcroppings. Still this was terrible enough because, instead of scraping along with the creation of sparks, the claws actually managed to cut through like a hot knife through butter, leaving briefly glowing marks behind.

If it can do that to stone… she thought as her imagination pictured the possibilities for living flesh.

"You get it yet, bitch?" Hanzo said even as he prepared his spear chain for another strike. "You had it easy before! Now… now we take you to HELL!"

N'atrina's POV

I hate it when people pull shit like this! she thought even as she worked to keep herself alive.

That being said, she loved the fact that the threat to Kagura and the others had been enough to trigger her transformation into her true form. She now believed that she knew the trigger to her transformation was her strong desire to protect another from perilous harm. She didn't know if deliberately bringing about such situations would also allow her to return to normal but, even if it did, the change only lasted until the danger passed. So she would treasure the moments when they came however brief they might be.

"See? You can fight half decently when you try!" she boasted, trying to sound like she was still utterly confident that she'd win.

This only got her another lightning quick strike from Hanzo's spear chain but, after seeing him attack a few times, she'd gotten a pretty good grip on what his body did before letting the weapon fly. She'd done the same for two more but the last one, Yusuf, was proving to be a little harder to predict since his air attacks took on multiple forms, some of which were not very direct. Nevertheless her earlier strategy was still at least partially effective in buying her openings, indicating that, while the men were evil, the fact that they were teammates was enough to make them pause.

Still, I should probably wrap things up quick. She evaded a swing from Ivan's big hammer. The hotter they get under the collar, the more unpredictable they'll get trying to kill me. If they get it in their heads to try and use the civilians to their advantage, Kagura could wind up getting seriously hurt.

With that in mind she used her evasion leaps to covertly take stock of how many shadows she had in the area to work with. She had to smile at the fact that, while they might have been small, the little rock outcroppings Ivan had created with his weapon had also created tiny shadows she could exploit. They wouldn't be able to extend very far but it'd mean that there would be quite a few spots for the evil men to keep track of while trying to hurt her. When added to the damaged buildings, debris and the light coming from the burning fires, she had a varied selection.

"Now see how I fight!" she declared before summoning shadow fists from the larger of the shadows present.

With considerable force they slammed into the most troublesome of the quartet, Hanzo, since his weapon provided him with the greatest speed and the greatest range. With the suddenness of it all the evil man had not been able to bring up his guard or even brace himself for the attack, thus he took the full force of it. One fist to the jaw, another to the stomach and, just because she was a dirty fighter, the third went right for the man's family jewels since it took an exceptional male indeed to keep fighting after a strike there. Going up into the air a full fifteen feet before descending back to the ground, she waited a bit after he landed to see if he would prove exceptional enough to rise back up but her patience was fruitless.

Good. One down and three to go.

Not wanting to get bogged down in more talking, she took a moment to land on a larger outcropping before pushing off with her leg strength to streak across at her remaining foes. When Ivan swung his hammer at her she merely used the head of it to flip over the blow before executing a split kick that struck both him and Yusuf both while Richard found himself kicked in the back from behind by one of her shadow limbs. As she flipped back the way she'd come, she used the shadows to once more strike each of the men but, while the blows to the body landed on two of them, Richard had apparently figured out the nature of her power.

Would it do him any good?

"So you use Shadow Magic," Richard said, wincing still with the pain of the blow to the back. "Yusuf! Flatten this playing field!"

With a growl and a look of determination the man executed a wind attack that was on a scale much more powerful than before. While not quite at hurricane speeds, it was having the effect of snuffing out the flames, clearing away a great deal of the debris and somehow slicing through half of the rocky outcroppings, leaving less than inch to rise up out of the ground. Indeed this did reduce the number of shadows in the area within range of her foes but, if the three idiots thought that they'd turned the tables on her, they would be wrong.

At best they leveled the playing field a bit.

"Ah! What a nice breeze!" she exclaimed, sounding completely refreshed. "But it's all pointless, you know. There are some shadows that you won't be able to erase no matter how hard you try. Wanna guess what those shadows are?"

She gave them a full five seconds to come up with an answer before she provided it herself.

A surge of shadow tentacles erupted from the shadows of the very men ensnared them, pinning their legs together and their arms to their sides. Physical strength would not be enough to break them free and, if she moved quickly enough, she could KO all of them.

Why did she have to move quickly?

Because, contrary to popular belief this power of her people came with a cost just the same as any other magic. Bringing this many tentacles into being and making them this strong took a sizeable amount of power and, if she waited too long to strike, her strength would be drained. Sprinting she executed a thrust front kick to Ivan's jaw since his hammer was the next most dangerous weapon of the quartet after Hanzo's spear chain. When this didn't floor him immediately she spun herself around to perform a spinning reverse heel kick to strike the jaw again before finishing off with her best uppercut. Shaking off the pain in her hand, she was satisfied to see him lose consciousness, causing her to release the hold her shadow tentacles had on him. Orienting her vision on Richard to remove the final close quarters threat, she targeted with precision, this time scoring blows on the right temple of the head, the throat, the part of the chest right above the heart, ending with a knee thrust to the stomach. In an ordinary situation any one of those blows would be devastating but all of them one after another put the gauntlet wielder's lights out.

Turning to Yusuf, the last of the quartet of evil, she prepared to finish him off when he did something rather pathetic. Even though his arms were pinned at the elbow the man still tried to throw his swords at her in a vain but, given how the tentacles were positioned, he was barely able to put any speed or power behind them.

As such she easily evaded the spinning blades…

…so why was he smiling?

Looking in the direction the blades had gone, she was shocked to see that instead of having lost their momentum and fallen to ground they were still in the air. Spinning like buzz saws they curved through the air, coming back her way fast, forcing her to divide her attention between keeping Yusuf tied up and evading the twin blades. The only thing that was in her favor was the fact that both blades seemed to be required to travel together rather than being capable of splitting up to fly independently. That meant her attention only needed to be in two places rather than three and that was something she could handle.

Still, with my magic waning I can't afford to just keep hopping about. She dove and rolled under the blades. If I get to him and knock him out, the magic he's using to keep the blades aloft should disperse, causing them to drop.

With that in mind she sprinted towards Yusuf, intent on KOing him as swiftly as possible. He recognized this too and his arms looked to be directing the spinning blades back in his direction. Whether this was to attack her or free himself from the shadow restraints she didn't know but that just made things easier for her. Keeping one eye on the blades while the other monitored her distance to Yusuf, she waited until the absolute last moment before leaping gracefully backwards over the blades. It was her plan that his own weapons kill him or that he would fling them away to save himself, giving her the opening needed to turn his lights out.

As her eyes were once more in position to gaze in his direction, she found that it was the second possible scenario that came true as the man desperately flung his arms away causing the blades to reverse course, missing him by less than a foot. She was about to charge in to deliver the final blow when the part of her mind that'd been keeping track of the blades automatically predicted the trajectory of both, so that she'd be ready to counter should they unexpectedly come back quicker.

It was when she remembered what was in the path that the spinning blades were currently flying that fear gripped her heart.

"Kagura!" she exclaimed as she turned, desperate to cross the distance and save Xander's young charge.

She was too far away.

Even if she did everything she could, sprinted her hardest, she would never be able to get there in time.

Seeing the fear in the girl's eyes as her death approached, she could only imagine what was to come.

However when light sprang into existence, blinding her, she was reminded that the universe often contained things that no mortal being could imagine.

Xander's POV

"Way of destruction number four: Byakurai!" he declared, pointing a finger at the group of three invaders who were about to cross the imaginary line he'd created in his mind.

A concentrated beam laced in lightning shot from his right index finger, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, piercing one through the lower leg, the next through the thigh and the final one through the hip. Thankfully, due to the nature of the spell, the wounds would be cauterized, preventing the trio of invaders from bleeding out. Just the same, though, they wouldn't be walking, much less running, anytime soon and that was good enough for him. Watching them just long enough to confirm that they wouldn't go back up, he brought his mind back to the flood of enemies he'd been doing his best to handle for the last half hour.

It hadn't been long after Cana and Lahar had left that the ice that'd kept the invaders locked up shattered, dropping him right back into the chaos preceding the duo's arrival. It was a challenge that almost overwhelmed him but, knowing what'd happen if he didn't at least try to meet it gave him the strength needed to keep fighting. It had been over a century since Fiore's military had last fought a serious war and the Rune Knights, to his knowledge, had never faced opposition this numerous. If he ran to look out for himself there was no telling how big an army would set foot on the soil of his new homeland.

There was also no telling how well the men and women charged with defending Fiore would fare against such an invading force.

With a pause that he'd know would be all too brief he reached out with his spiritual senses to see if all the civilians had made it out of Alabon. Almost… almost… they were right at the edge of the town and they were getting closer with every second.

He could risk it now.

With no one alive closer than the edge of town, it was time to go all out.

"Alright, guys, as unfair as this'll probably be it's time for me to take off the kid gloves." He willed the wooden wrapping around his zanpakuto to vanish with a shout.

With the volume of his voice and the strength of his will he pushed his spiritual energy to its maximum output, generating a mound of fiery energy around him even as the weight of the air increased dramatically for those unable to bear it. Thanks to his training he knew he'd be able to keep it at this level for at least three hours before he'd be forced to dial it down. As far as overall stamina was concerned, his reservoir of spiritual energy would let him stay in the fight for most of the time Lahar mentioned it'd take for reinforcements to arrive. After that he'd have to withdraw and hope that he could recover his strength swiftly enough to establish a second line of defense. He'd probably have to trick the invaders into thinking that he was withdrawing to pull guerilla attacks against them in order to make their advance slow and cautious. It wouldn't buy him much time but in a situation like that he'd take whatever recovering time he could scrape together before diving back into the battlefield.

Surveying the battlefield in front of him he could see almost a quarter of the invaders were on the ground gasping for air his spiritual pressure put an unbelievable weight on their souls. Another quarter were still on their feet but, from the shakes he could see in their bodies every little while, he doubted they'd be able to divert much strength from remaining vertical to attacking him. It was the remaining half of the invading force that had him wary since, while it looked as though they felt the pressure, it would not negatively impact their fighting ability.

Once he was sure his power had leveled off he sprang into action, striking at the invaders who were barely staying on their feet with his sheathed zanpakuto. The situation had not gotten so desperate yet that he was willing to take lives or get saddled with the consequences of doing so by both Master Makerov as well as the Magic Council. It went against the principles and beliefs of the Fairy Tail guild to take the life of an enemy, no matter how low they sunk. It was also against the laws of the Magic Guild for a legal mage to take a life and he was pretty sure there'd be no leniency from the Magic Council either. He knew from the other guild members that the Council regularly sent letters of complaint about the collateral damage Fairy Tail mages did during the course of their jobs. According to Cana it was only due to Master Makerov's friend on the Council, as well as a few sympathizers, that no action stronger than fines were carried out.

I just have to hope that the people I knock out will stay down long enough for me to take care of their pals, he thought as he continued to use a combination of flash steps and sheathed sword strikes.

It was as he could see the end of taking out the shaky standers, though, that his danger sense spiked, causing him to shunpo clear of the enemy forces. He found it was a good thing he did since, when he directed his gaze back, he saw a tendril of red liquid with a jagged point at the end tear through several of the invaders. It would've skewered him, too, if he hadn't sensed it coming but it made him wonder whether not the caster of the spell had killed his comrades on purpose. Following the length of the tendril back to its point of generation, he was surprised to see it that it'd come from Master Grachev.

"A little careless to take out some of your own men when it's me you're aiming for," he said while the sudden deaths of comrades kept the rest of the invaders from acting.

"Who says I did it by accident?" Master Grachev asked rhetorically, with a smile that reminded him all too much of the vampires back home. "We've no need for the weak in his invading army. Besides, doing so worked out nicely for me."

"What? 'Cause you had some fun?" he asked, figuring that was probably the main reason.

"Well, I won't deny that, but the real reason is this…" Master Grachev said with a bit of pleasure. "…BLOOD MAKE: NEEDLE RAIN!"

The blood from the wounds in those invaders Grachev struck shot up into the air before coming down at him in the form of glistening red needles. His first instinct was to evade but on instinct he chose not to. Instead he pushed the heat given off by his spiritual energy up so that the needles evaporated into nothingness. As the last needle vanished his mind caught up with everything and he knew that the reason why he'd evaporated the needles rather than evading them became apparent. If he'd evaded the needles it would've been taken as a sign of weakness by the invading forces, increasing their boldness and making it that much harder for him to keep them penned in. By eradicating the needles the way he did, he made it clear that the implements could not harm him. This would make him look even more impressive and make the army he was facing off against all the more reluctant to come at him.

What bothered him though was the fact that the head of the dark guild used a magic that utilized blood as a weapon. Did he need to slice open your skin to seize control of it? Could he control it while still inside the body? He didn't know but also meant that, depending on how much of a monster the man was, Grachev could very well use every one of the people on his side as ammunition. He'd seen what Grey could make when he had a large enough body of water to work with so, if the Master of Death's Head Caucus could do the same with blood, he was in BIG trouble.

"You're quite the hot head aren't you, Yamamoto?" Grachev said, sounding greatly amused by what he'd seen thus far. "I must say that you've proven to be much more than just another annoying fly from a weak legal guild. To keep so many from advancing into the town all on your own… magnificent! I even sense that you're still holding yourself back a bit. I wonder what it'd take to force you to actually kill one of these men instead of just injuring them."

Great. Instead of making the guy afraid he'd only made the guild master more interested in seeing the full extent of what he could do.

"More than you're capable of," he said, knowing that it was dangerous to provoke the man into escalating matters.

However showing weakness could not be allowed because it'd only make matters worse.

"Oh? Now that sounds like a challenge!" Grachev exclaimed, sounding overjoyed at the prospect. "In that case… get to work, you walking trash bags! I'll keep our 'kind' host entertained! BLOOD MAKE: SPEARS!"

So that was the monster's plan.

He would use himself as the distraction while the invading force went around the two of them to make it next to impossible to line up non-lethal strikes against the army. Sure, he had the ability to use the heat from his spiritual energy to nullify the Blood Make attacks but doing so took quite a bit of effort. Likely Grachev suspected this and was choosing attacks accordingly. Thus, if he tried to nullify every attack, he'd only wind up burning through his spiritual energy that much quicker, allowing the guild master to gain the advantage. His earlier estimate for holding off the invasion was based on the premise that he'd be efficiently using his power every step of the way. Turning into a walking blacksmith forge was NOT efficient.

Instead he focused on evasion since he'd gotten good enough with flash step that he wasted very little energy executing it each time he executed it.

As swiftly as he could he moved himself to get in front of the advancing men but then his danger sense spiked again, forcing him to veer off on another course. Looking at where he'd been, he found the head of a halberd shatter the ground and this was something of a shock. All during the time that he'd been harassing the invaders, thus far only luck had allowed them to score a hit on him. None of them had been able to keep up with his speed but now it looked like facing a guild master would be the one time where his speed wouldn't be nearly as overwhelming.

Still, he had to keep the invaders penned in here. He had to.

Pushing his proficiency with flash step even further, he tried to randomize his approach to the advancing invaders in the hopes of throwing off Grachev long enough to halt their advance.

Almost…

GUARD!

In the blink of an eye be brought his sheathed zanpakuto up and something that reminded him of a vicious kanabo struck it. The power behind it! It was easily as powerful as what he'd been on the receiving end of the one time he'd pissed off Mirajane enough to cause her to forget that they were just sparring. Putting condensed spiritual energy beneath his feet, he worked to halt his backward motion and, while it took a few feet, he succeeded. Trying to push the blood kanabo back, he wound up being forced to simply parry it off to the side instead.

"You can buzz about all you want, Yamamoto, but I'll see you just fine," Master Grachev said even as his blood weapon withdrew to where he stood. "The only way you're going to be able to go after those bugs is by taking me down. So let's have at it!"

He's right. If he can see me even at flash step speed and accurately attack, I can't go after the main force until I KO him, he thought as he finally accepted the situation.

In what to any observers would've been the blink of an eye he crossed the distance between himself and Grachev using flash step, bringing his sheathed weapon down in a one handed overhead strike. This blow at first was blocked by the blood kanabo but, as he forced more strength into his blow in order to finish his swing, this time it was the guild master who had to divert a blow off to the side. Not to give the guy a chance to return fire he turned the momentum of his parried attack into a kick aimed at the guy's head. With disappointment he watched Grachev duck under the leg but, before the man could grab ahold of the limb or use the moment of vulnerability to his advantage, he pushed off a mass of condensed spiritual energy to escape the danger zone.

But he wasn't done yet.

"Way of Destruction thirty-one: Shakkahō!"

With a brief swirl a glowing crimson sphere formed in front of his palm before rocketing towards its designated target.

"Blood Make: Shield!" Grachev declared before more blood from those he'd struck earlier sprang forth to form a simple shield.

When the two spells collided there was a sizeable detonation and his way of destruction managed to shatter the shield but it did no more than that.

Grachev didn't counter attack immediately and it made him wary but, when he took into account what the guy had done thus far with the maximum amount of blood in the human body, it clicked. Taking a quick glance at the felled invaders he saw that they'd been reduced to shriveled up husks, thoroughly drained of blood. This could only mean that the spells the man had cast had used up all his ammo, leaving him with only his body.

Master Grachev guffawed with a look of elation on his face. "Finally! Finally someone who can make my blood tingle! Now I can REALLY cut loose!"

He wasn't really trying up until now!? he thought in shock as the man began to pluck blades from the sheathes.

Preparing himself to dodge the deadly metal implements, he was confused when the man didn't throw them in his direction but rather off to the side. He thought for a moment that perhaps the blades had some special properties that allowed them to be kept aloft as well as controlled remotely but the truth was far fouler.

He was not the target of the blades.

The targets were those invaders who'd been stuck on the ground under the weight of his spiritual pressure. Spines were exposed, throats were slashed and intestines came into contact with air as the blades dealt fatal strikes while giving access to the blood within. Even when the man had not cared one bit that his evaded attack had resulted in a number of his allies being struck down, he'd never thought that the man would kill more deliberately.

Yet that was indeed the case.

To this demon in human form, all those that'd come with him to Alabon were nothing more than containers for extra ammunition.

This caused a fire to ignite within him that had nothing to do with his spiritual energy.

Thanks to his time with Fairy Tail and the Scoobies, he'd gained a very clear picture of what you could and could not do when it came to those fighting on your side. Treating them like cannon fodder, taking their lives with a happy song in your heart and using what you took from them to end even more lives both innocent and not…

"Enough. You wanted to know what it'd take to make me unsheathe my blade?" he asked as he made the only choice that would satisfy his heart and his soul.

Grasping his zanpakuto he pulled, causing the blade to sing as it left its sheathe, exposing it to the open air for the first time since his fight with Matia.

"Treating comrades like fuel whose only purpose is to make you stronger… taking life without a shred of guilt…" he said in a calm voice that'd send chills down most people's spines.

In a burst of speed he appeared in front of Grachev, zanpakuto already in mid-swing with the flames of his spiritual energy giving it a light coating.

"This is what it takes, you bastard!" he yelled as Grachev created another kanabo to defend with, only for it to be cut halfway through before eliminating the rest of the momentum of the swing.

With that the battle entered a new phase with an end point no one could see.

Cana's POV

"Is that the last of them?" she asked as she watched the group of citizens and guardsmen leave.

"The last we could find on our way out," Lahar replied as he turned to face her. "We just have to hope that the majority of the citizens managed to make it out."

It had been terrible on their way out because for every three people they were able to rescue and add to their group of evacuees they found twice that amount already dead. Either they'd been crushed by debris, blown up in the cannon barrage or murdered by the invaders. It was not something she had experience in since, in all her jobs as a mage of Fairy Tail, she usually arrived long after the dead had been put in their graves or just in time to keep the damage to a hospital stay. Never had she bore witness to carnage like this or seen someone die right before her eyes like this. It shook her composure but it did not shatter it. Too much was depending on her for her to lose it now.

"Then you should leave now and get outside the jamming zone," she said, remembering the help that Xander was counting on. "We need those troops as soon as possible."

"What will you do?" Lahar asked, not objecting to being told to leave.

"I'll stay here and pick off any invaders that slip past Xander," she replied, checking her stock of cards. "There might be more survivors that'll be heading this way. I can tell them where the rally point is."

"I admire your dedication to Alabon but it would be wiser to leave with me," Lahar said, showing a cold practicality to his thoughts. "While I do not find fault with Alexander's plan, realistically speaking the most we can expect him to last is two hours. Maybe three. After that the invaders will swarm over Alabon like a colony of ants. At that point your death or capture is certain."

"Then I'll wait two and a half hours then go in to get him!" she declared angrily at the man's coldness. "Fairy Tail mages do not abandon their friends! Ever!"

"Very well. I will not further insult your resolve," Lahar said before bowing as much as the long range lacrima he carried would allow him to. "I wish you both the best of luck."

With that the Rune Knight began to run away from Alabon as swiftly as he could manage without tiring himself out too quickly.

Turning back to the town, she beheld the towers of smoke that rose from the fires scattered about Alabon and heard the sounds of violence echo throughout the air. Every time she heard a particularly loud boom or a male voice bellow in pain, she wanted to run towards it if only to confirm that it was Xander who caused the former rather than the latter. However she knew that it was important to be here for both the invaders who made it this far as well as any remaining survivors. What was at stake wasn't just Alabon but rather the whole of Fiore and, to keep it from descending into a senseless war, she had to do what she could to keep this conflict from expanding. So with that in mind she squashed the compulsion to run to Xander's side and remained ready to lend her strength to her current location.

It was almost thirty agonizing minutes later that she heard the sounds of feet on stone pavement and, in preparation for possible trouble, drew the three cards she'd need for 'Thunderbolt's Fate'. She waited until she could positively identify the owners of the footsteps so she did not wind up hurting innocent people. It was as a bunch of heads started popping up and down to become people that she realized that what she was looking at were survivors and so she lowered her card arm. She did not put the cards away just in case some invaders showed up but it did her heart good to see that more had survived the carnage.

The warmth in her heart turned to an arctic chill as she saw that in the arms of one of the fleeing citizens was Kagura, who was unconscious. She couldn't see from where she stood whether the young woman was still breathing or not but she knew a quick way to find out.

"Kagura! What happened to her!?" she asked as she ran to meet the group of survivors halfway.

"Xander's what happened to her," came a voice from somewhere at the feet of the person carrying Kagura. "Indirectly but it's still his fault. Still, it saved her life so I guess that's a good thing."

Looking down she immediately spotted N'atrina, Xander's cat, and as surprising as it was she was certain that the person who'd answered the question had been the feline. The surprise was only moderate because she had lived with Happy long enough that a talking cat wasn't a big thing but it was still shocking.

"Still waiting for an explanation," she said, deciding that learning more about N'atrina could wait until later.

"It looks like he might've given her powers like his." N'atrina said before turning to a man to her right. "Show her."

In compliance the man took out a wakizashi with a blue hilt and twin slim swirls of metal looping around the blade to form the tsuba. Indeed the hilt guard sort of looked like an S from her point of view. Whatever the design, it was definitely of the same variety of sword as Xander's when he removed the wooden disguise surrounding it.

"It… appeared in a flash of light to defend her when one of the invaders threw one of his weapons at her," N'atrina explained, sound like something was bothering her. "It managed to deflect the sword but both it and her dropped to the ground immediately afterwards. If she'd been a mage I'd have explained it as her using up her magic all at once."

Reaching out, she placed two fingers on Kagura's throat and confirmed a steady heartbeat, if a little weaker than would be considered normal. If what the young lady had was indeed similar to magical deficiency disease, then all she'd need would be plenty of rest and time in order to recover what she'd lost. It was a weight off her shoulders to know that a member of the group she'd brought to Alabon was still alive and would make a full recovery.

"Where's Xander?" N'atrina asked, looking about for some sign of her partner.

She had trouble answering that question since it'd likely upset the feline when she found out. Nevertheless, not answering would likely only cause weird possibilities to pop into the cat's head so she decided that it was better to divulge the truth.

"He's down by the docks… trying to stall the invasion long enough for the Fiore military and the Rune Knights to get here." She was unable to keep her worry out of her voice.

"WHAT!? THAT JACKASS!" N'atrina yelled furiously, like a high strung big sister. "IS HE TRYING TO GET HIMSELF KILLED!?"

"I didn't like it either!" she yelled, venting her displeasure at the state of things. "Someone had to make sure everyone got out and the cavalry got called in! He wasn't going to budge no matter what and knocking him unconscious so I could drag him out would only have gotten both of us killed!"

"That's it! I'm going back there and I'm going to make sure he makes it out alive so I can give him a personal ass kicking later!" N'atrina said as she turned around and began to run back into Alabon.

"You're as insane as he is! What do you think you can do?! YOU'RE A CAT!" she exclaimed as the cat got further away.

"Nah, that's just my day job!" N'atrina yelled before she got too far away for even yelling to be an effective means of communication.

"Um… ma'am… I think she'll have a better chance than you think," the man carrying Kagura said, sounding a little glad that N'atrina was gone. "She can use magic to transform into something that looks human but isn't. Blue skin, claws, the ability to shape shadows into whatever she wanted. It was scary!"

Curiouser and curiouser.

The surprises just keep coming with that cat, she thought as she took the information in. Still, even if N'atrina isn't defenseless, going in there after Xander is just plain stupid.

Seeing the cat get further and further away, though, she felt her worry triple and, in a moment of insight, she realized the cause of it all. While she was here, outside the town, she was helpless to do anything to prevent harm from coming to Xander. Now with N'atrina going into danger as well, her helplessness increased because now there would be two beings she'd brought with her on this job that were bringing themselves closer to death's waiting hands.

It was not a feeling she could endure!

"Do any of you know where Robyn's Farm is?" she asked the assembled group her ultimate decision mentally made.

"I do."

"Me too."

"That's the location all citizens of Alabon are to relocate to," she explained, pointing in the direction the previous group of civilians had gone. "Get there as quickly as you can and take Kagura with you."

"What're you going to do?" a civilian asked, sounding a little confused as to why she wasn't coming along.

"Something that'll either be really brave or really stupid!" she replied before breaking into a sprint back into Alabon to get to where she needed to be.

Only time would tell which it turned out to be.