Chapter 498: Is There Really a Need to be This Exaggerated?
"It's time for you all to leave," Noah said, turning to the Fairy Tail mages.
Natsu opened his mouth to protest, but Noah held up a hand to stop him.
"Didn't we agree on this beforehand? You only had one chance to attack. You just went all out and completely emptied your magic reserves. How exactly do you plan to keep fighting?"
"Dammit!" Natsu's face contorted with intense frustration. He had finally encountered the Dragon he had been searching for so desperately, only for it to completely ignore him and treat them all as enemies. His hope of getting any information about his foster father, Igneel, had been shattered. And now, completely drained of magic, he couldn't even fight back. The overwhelming sense of powerlessness and anger was suffocating.
Beside him, Gajeel looked equally furious. Just like Natsu, he desperately wanted to know what happened to Metalicana, but it was painfully obvious they weren't going to get any answers today.
"Take these potions. Drink them and recover your strength as quickly as possible," Noah said, pulling a bundle of vials from his spatial pocket and using a gentle wave of magic to float them directly into everyone's hands.
The mages didn't hesitate. They popped the corks and downed the glowing liquids immediately. They desperately needed the recovery; the hollow, aching sensation of total magical depletion was agonizing.
"We're pulling back," Gildarts announced after tossing his empty vial aside. He turned and took the lead without another word.
He had originally wanted to stay behind and help Noah fight Acnologia, but after realizing that his Crash Magic was completely ineffective against the Black Dragon, he abandoned the idea. His magic power was his absolute greatest asset, and it was useless here. Whatever physical martial arts he had left wouldn't even register as a tickle to a Dragon. Staying behind would only make him a liability and hinder Noah's movements.
Seeing their strongest mage take the lead in retreating, the others quickly followed suit. Natsu, knowing his own limits and the gravity of the situation, swallowed his complaints and chased after Gildarts.
"Stay safe, Noah. Don't push yourself too hard," Ultear urged, her eyes filled with concern. Erza and the others also looked back at him worriedly.
"Of course," Noah nodded, waving them off.
Not wasting another second, Ultear and the rest of the vanguard turned and sprinted after Gildarts.
Once they were clear, Noah slowly turned his gaze back toward the ocean.
ROAAAAAR!!!
Acnologia's earth-shattering roar echoed across the water. A massive black silhouette breached the surface of the distant sea, launching itself into the sky and rocketing straight toward the island at terrifying speed.
Hearing the apocalyptic roar, Gildarts and the retreating mages gritted their teeth and broke into a dead sprint. They desperately needed to reach the safety of the Tenrou Island barrier. Even from this distance, they could already feel a colossal, world-ending magic power erupting from where they had left Noah.
"Alright. After all this preparation... it's finally time to throw down with Acnologia," Noah murmured, a fierce smile spreading across his face.
He released the high-density gravity seal that he constantly kept layered over his own body.
"Phew... I feel so light!"
The moment the seal deactivated, Noah felt an incredible sense of weightlessness, as if he could simply float into the sky. He rolled his shoulders and threw a few rapid practice punches, letting his muscles acclimate to their true, unburdened speed.
He then looked up at the rapidly approaching black dot in the sky. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of high-grade recovery potions and downed them all at once.
"I need to stack every single buff I have, otherwise I won't stand a chance," Noah muttered to himself.
Even with all his meticulous planning, facing the absolute strongest entity in the world was an immensely daunting prospect.
"HRAAAH!"
Noah dropped into a half-crouch, clasping his hands tightly together in front of his chest. He tapped into the absolute deepest reserves of his magical core.
BOOM!
A catastrophic eruption of golden magic exploded from his body, enveloping him like a roaring, blinding inferno.
The sheer density of the aura caused the bedrock in a hundred-meter radius to violently shatter and collapse inward. Noah remained in his stance, slowly sinking as the earth crumbled beneath him.
The pulverised rock and debris were caught in the overwhelming gravitational pull of his magic, levitating into the air before being violently blasted outward like shrapnel by the hurricane-force shockwaves radiating from his body.
"Whoa!"
Gildarts and the retreating mages, despite running as fast as they could, were caught off guard by the massive gale blasting from behind them. Still recovering their strength, they stumbled and nearly face-planted into the dirt, forced to stagger forward several steps just to keep their balance.
They also had to constantly weave and dodge the lethal chunks of bedrock whizzing past their heads like artillery shells.
"Hurry! Keep moving!" Gildarts shouted, pushing them to run faster to escape the blast radius.
Thankfully, Noah's potions were already taking effect. With their stamina and magic rapidly recovering, they managed to dodge the flying debris and sprinted toward the invisible boundary of the Tenrou Island barrier.
"Enchant: Maximum Magic Capacity Boost!"
Through the advanced application of Enchantment Magic, Noah forcefully expanded his own magical container. Then, fueled by his monstrous natural regeneration and the stacked effects of the potions he had just consumed, the newly expanded capacity was instantly flooded and filled to the brim with fresh magic power.
This was a highly advanced, borderline reckless technique that only Noah could pull off.
For a normal mage, forcefully expanding their magical limits would drain so much energy that they wouldn't even be able to fill the new capacity before the buff expired. Even with auxiliary recovery buffs or potions, a normal mage could only recover the magic they spent, not generate extra magic to fill an artificially expanded void.
Powerful spells always came with harsh restrictions—Lost Magics being the prime example. While Noah's technique didn't have lethal side effects, the sheer volume of magic required to artificially expand an already ocean-sized magical core was astronomical.
Fortunately, Noah's absurd recovery rate made this impossible technique a reality.
With his magical reserves temporarily pushed beyond their absolute limits, the golden inferno surrounding him flared even brighter. The crater beneath him expanded violently, sinking another several dozen meters deep and hurling even more pulverized rock into the howling storm.
"Is there really a need to be this exaggerated?!" Sorano yelled over the howling wind, ducking to avoid a massive boulder flying past her head. Feeling the terrifying, suffocating aura radiating from Noah, she couldn't help but complain.
"It just proves he's going all out. And against an opponent like this, anything less would be suicide," Ultear reasoned calmly as she ran beside her.
Having seen their combined, ultimate attacks fail to even scratch Acnologia's scales, they understood exactly how unfathomably powerful the Black Dragon was. Since Noah himself didn't believe he could actually defeat the beast, powering up to this apocalyptic degree was the only logical choice.
"I'm just worried he might push himself too far. If the fight goes to his head and he loses control, it could be disastrous," Erza voiced her concern, glancing back nervously.
Ultear and the others fell silent.
It was a known fact that almost every mage in Fairy Tail suffered from battle-lust and a tendency to go overboard and destroy things. Noah was usually incredibly disciplined and kept his destructive urges strictly in check. Because he knew exactly how absurdly powerful he was, he rarely ever cut loose to avoid accidentally killing his opponents or causing irreversible collateral damage.
Furthermore, he almost never found an opponent strong enough to actually warrant going all out, meaning he rarely got to enjoy a truly satisfying fight.
But now, facing a monster so overwhelmingly powerful that he had to push himself beyond his absolute limits just to survive... Erza feared that the adrenaline might consume him. If he lost his cool and threw his life away in the heat of battle, it would be a tragedy.
"No, we have to trust him. Noah values his own life more than anyone," Mirajane suddenly spoke up, a confident smile returning to her face.
The others blinked, processing her words, and simultaneously let out sighs of relief.
She was right. Noah was notoriously cautious and paranoid. He always prepared dozens of backup plans for every conceivable worst-case scenario. A man who cherished his life that much wouldn't simply throw it away because of battle-lust.
"Don't worry. Noah knows how to protect himself. He's already set a plan in motion; we just need to trust him," Makarov added firmly from the front of the pack.
Hearing the Guild Master's reassurance, the heavy anxiety weighing on the girls' chests finally lifted.
"We're here! Get inside, quickly!" Gildarts shouted, pointing ahead.
A faint, shimmering golden dome was now visible just a few dozen meters in front of them. Through the translucent barrier, they could see Mavis, Lucy, and the others frantically operating the island's defense mechanisms, while Wendy and the younger kids watched nervously.
Ultear and the vanguard put on a final burst of speed, charging straight at the barrier. The moment they got close, their Fairy Tail guild marks glowed faintly, allowing them to pass through the golden shield without any resistance.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
The lethal debris that had been chasing them slammed violently against the outside of the barrier, deflected harmlessly away.
Huff... huff...
Once safely inside the dome, everyone collapsed. Many dropped straight to their knees or sat heavily on the grass, completely winded. That frantic, high-speed sprint had burned through whatever meager stamina the potions had just restored.
"Wait... is it just me, or is our magic and stamina recovering way faster in here?" Gray suddenly noted, looking at his hands in surprise.
Even with Noah's potions, this recovery rate was exceptionally fast.
"Within the boundaries of the Tenrou Island barrier, anyone bearing the Fairy Tail crest receives the blessing of the Tenrou Tree. It massively boosts our magical recovery rate. Don't waste time—sit down, meditate, and recover," Ultear explained quickly, already settling into a meditative stance.
Understanding it was the island's magic at work, the group relaxed and focused on recovering their strength.
However, none of them closed their eyes. Every single gaze was locked firmly on Noah's distant figure outside the barrier. They were about to witness a battle of apocalyptic proportions, and none of them wanted to miss a single second of it.
"Enchant: Physical Constitution Boost!"
After maximizing his magical capacity, Noah cast his next enchantment, pushing his physical body to its absolute limits.
Based on the barrage of attacks the guild had just unleashed, Noah had definitively confirmed that Acnologia was completely immune to the vast majority of magic. Spells simply lost their properties the moment they touched its scales.
The only exception was Dragon Slayer Magic, which possessed a slight elemental advantage, but Natsu and Laxus's output wasn't nearly strong enough to deal any actual damage.
Even Ur's colossal ice sword had begun to magically dissolve the moment it struck the Dragon. The only reason it had managed to knock Acnologia out of the sky was because of the sheer, non-magical kinetic mass of the remaining ice physically crashing down on it. It was pure blunt-force trauma.
In other words, the only way to fight Acnologia was with pure, unadulterated physical violence.
Therefore, Noah had to maximize his physical stats to turn himself into a living weapon. Thanks to years of training constantly under extreme gravity seals, his baseline physical strength was already monstrous. Layering advanced Enchantment Magic over that foundation gave him the confidence to actually trade blows with the Black Dragon.
Of course, winning was completely out of the question. But exchanging a few solid hits? That was entirely possible.
"Enchant: Reaction Speed Boost!"
With enhanced physical strength came the need for enhanced reflexes. If he couldn't perceive and react to the Dragon's movements, he would be instantly swatted like a fly.
"Enchant: Speed Boost!"
He needed maximum mobility to engage, evade, and keep pace with an apex predator.
"Enchant: Defense Boost!"
He needed his body to be as durable as possible to mitigate the catastrophic damage he was inevitably going to take.
"Enchant: Attack Power Boost!"
He needed every single punch to carry the kinetic force of a falling meteor if he wanted to even bruise the beast.
"Enchant: All Attributes Boost!"
Aside from the primary combat stats, Noah cast a blanket buff over every secondary attribute. Even if the individual boosts were smaller, elevating his overall physical baseline would allow him to utilize his primary buffs much more efficiently.
"Enchant: All Resistances Boost!"
Noah fully expected to get hit, so maximizing his pain tolerance and elemental resistance was mandatory.
"Enchant: Regeneration Boost!"
Finally, amplifying his natural healing factor would allow him to stay in the fight longer and rapidly recover from the devastating injuries he was about to sustain.
~~~
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