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CHAPTER START---
"Why is this base so—" Gildarts smashes through the exterior wall of a building, entering an alleyway near the outer wall of the base. "Finally!"
He rushes forward and punches through the outer wall with his right fist, leaving his left arm hanging limply at his side. Dashing through the dust and debris, he sees the southern hills beyond the base, entirely clear and barren, made of hard green and red coral.
Sending a wave of Shimmering Crystals behind him, he spins and launches Crash Magic, shattering them all before another wave is sent directly at him. He leaps backward, tossing aside his shredded cloak and blocking his face with his right arm as the crystals explode on the ground in front of him.
"You're out of places to hide," Avsala says. "Your inexperience is showing. Brining me to a place where I can't hide is good, but now you have no cover."
She leaps down outside the wall, standing across from the man as he rolls his right arm. But Avsala notices a wide smile on his face. Scrutinizing his body from a distance, she sees blood dripping from his injured shoulder, one arm limp at his side, and various cuts and bruises across his body.
"What are you smiling about?" She asks, aiming her staff at him and forming a Magic Circle at the head.
"Nothing really. Just appreciating how strong you are. How precise your Magic is."
"Complimenting me now, I hope you don't believe that will be enough to let you leave."
"Honestly, I'm just jealous. Crash Magic is innate to me, it destabilizes my Magic Energy intrinsically, prevents me from learning other precise Magics."
"What an unfortunate disability for a Wizard."
"There are people with worse, it's just the hand we're dealt. But this makes you and I opposites, since you're precise enough to fight anywhere, but I need to be more mindful of my surroundings…"
Avsala instantly understands, not needing to glance at the open area around them or sense how far both their allies were. He'd led her far enough to unleash his full power upon her.
She raises her staff, aiming the Magic Circle at the sky and releasing hundreds of Shimmering Crystals. They shine brightly with explosive Magic Energy and move like blurs, a dance of coordinated chaos while hurtling at Gildarts.
She leaps backward, keeping her gaze locked onto him while retreating back toward the base, hoping to take the battle toward the others, but he's fast.
He closes the distance with absurd speed, but even now, she's faster, preventing him from reaching her in time. She smiles at this realization, with the base less than 30m -100ft- away, and Gildarts over three times as far away.
'He should have baited me farther away,' she thinks, only for her smile to crumble as Gildarts forms a sphere of bright red Crash Magic in his right hand.
"All Crash!" he chants, and crushes it in his hand. A blinding red light engulfs their new battlefield, sending an omnidirectional wave of Crash Magic into the environment.
The wave is larger than Avsala could have expected, breaking apart the coral ground, hills, and even the debris in the air, all before reaching her. She tries to defend herself, but the attack breaks her into hundreds of tiny and dazed versions of herself, dropping into a pile amongst the rubble.
They all wobble and struggle to regain their senses while Gildarts continues his charge, crushing the perfect cubes of rubble beneath his feet until he appears in front of Avsala's location.
Rearing back his right arm, he snaps his fingers, dispelling his Crash Magic's effect on her, reforming the woman into her full size directly in front of him.
Before she could even blink away the confusion, his fist is already careening toward her face. "Descending Judgement, Shattering Evil, Grand Crash!"
His fist shatters her jaw, rattling her brain, then he twists and pivots, moving his entire body forward to put all his strength into the attack, crashing her skull into the rubble beneath them.
The impact shakes the entire base, and Gildarts retracts his fist to see a imprint on her left cheek, teeth scattered about beside her.
He stumbles back, taking deep and exhausted breaths before falling and sitting on the ground, catching his breath while looking at her. "Damn it, what a obnoxious opponent. But you were strong…"
As the adrenaline slowly fades, searing pain wracks his body, mainly his left shoulder and arm, but he's once again distracted. Turning to the north, he sees Oberon and Fulmer in the sky.
Shrouded by The Boundless Cosmos, they appear as silhouettes of white clashing in the night sky. Everyone could feel Oberon's immense Magic Energy in this moment, and they all looked up at the battle to see a knight, drowning in the power of the King of the Fairies.
The Magic Energy pillar retracts into Oberon as he and Fulmer descend to the earth below, and Gildarts shakes his head. "Took you long enough to figure out that strange Magic," he mutters while looking at Oberon.
Moments later, a squad of Rune Knights arrive, placing Avsala in custody. "What's the situation?" Gildarts asks one of the men.
"Oberon is done with Fulmer, another squad just picked him up. The main battlefield is a plaza close to the entrance of the base, and the Wizard Saints are—"
A deafening explosion and battlefield-shaking quake cuts off the man, pulling their attention to the fortress. The entire coral fortress cracks apart, crumbling away as a 500m -1500ft- tall Coral Golem, brimming with Magic Energy, rises from the structure before punching down at it.
But a bright gold mote of glowing Magic Energy dodges the attack and soars upward, then rapidly expands.
"Looks like it's over" Gildarts says while everyone else on the battlefield is left in awe as Makarov Dreyar grows to a size that's head and shoulders larger than the Coral Golem, glaring down at it as the bulging muscles of his shirtless form contract and flex, strengthening themselves as he raises his hand high above.
The Coral Golem punches forward, but before it can even hit him, his hand descends like a meteor, releasing a blinding golden light across the battlefield.
Gildarts remains seated, but pulls the Rune Knight down beside him, and moments later a blast of wind is sent across the battlefield, carrying dust and debris on the shockwave as the world seemingly falls apart.
The golden and green arcs of Magic Energy above immediately stop, and Gildarts senses Coral's Magic Energy signature shrink. He coughs a bit as the dust settles, and when it does, the entire fortress and Coral Golem are a massive pile of rubble, smashed apart in one blow by Master Makarov.
"Light Titan," the Rune Knight mutters, finally understanding the title and tales of Makarov Dreyar.
Gildarts smiles. "She must have really riled him up to bring out that side of him. But looks like this battle is over. Be ready to relay a update to all points about her defeat. And get some Rune Knights in motion toward the fortress to detain her."
"Yes sir," the Rune Knight rises to his feet and turns to rush back to the main battle area. But before he could take more than a few steps, a wave of heinous and evil Magic Energy surges through the entire region.
It brings all battle to a halt, chilling the Wizards who could sense it to their core, as if the creeping hand of death were suddenly at their throats.
Makarov's voice reaches all minds, screaming a desperate telepathic command at them. 'Get away from the fortress be—' his communication is cut off.
Back at the main battlefield, there is a tense moment as everyone holds their breath, then another wave of Magic Energy surges outward, and Macao takes the lead.
"Everyone out, now!" The Fairy Tail Wizards and Rune Knights don't hesitate to retreat, leaving the Great Reef Wizards confused, unsure if they should obey the command they heard as well.
Laxus turns toward the fortress and forces himself to stand, even as exhausted as he is. The boy's feet march toward his grandfather.
"No way," Wakaba scoops him up, holding the boy over his shoulder while running away. "We need to follow orders."
"But he needs our help! What if—!" An eruption of evil Magic Energy causes everyone to turn to the fortress, and they all see a geyser of black ichor rising from the structure, boasting hundreds of glowing red eyes that target all life.
"No way you're going there," Wakaba says as he immediately runs away with Laxus, now joined by the Great Reef guildmembers. "Besides, they're already heading over there…"
Laxus looks up through teary eyes and sees Gildarts leaping between buildings, left arm hanging limply at his side while bolting toward the fortress.
And from the north, Oberon is flying like a blur to help Master Makarov…
CHAPTER END---
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