Chapter 16 – Air VS Sound

Wendy's Fierce Battle

Through the use of her supportive arts Wendy had managed to get in close to Loretta to go on the offensive. Wendy's short arms and legs punched and kicked at the older Sound Slayer but despite her improved abilities Loretta managed to block most of her assault. Wendy was younger and less experienced in combat and this was showing quite evidently in the fight despite her temporary power boost. Still the sound-slayer was hard pressed until she countered Wendy with a sound charged power fist.

The Fist of the Sound Dragon exploded onto Wendy's arms as she had attempted to bowl over the older dragon slayer. A great cacophony resounded throughout Wendy's body and consequently her ears. Wendy tried not to scream in pain as the shockwave racked her body and sent her flying. Carla managed to catch her, bringing her flight to a halt and the two floated up in the air for a moment.

"N-no!" Wendy gasped in horror as she could feel the effects of her enhancements leave her.

"What is it Wendy?" Carla asked feeling instant concern for the girl that had been by her side for so long.

"Loretta-san's attack, it's canceled out my magic! How can I fight Loretta-san without enhancements!?" It was not necessarily the power of Loretta's magic that was so devastating, it was their nature. Sound waves can easily distract a mage, preventing them from concentrating and the vibrations can disrupt magic channels as well. Experienced mages could probably ignore it but for Wendy, and her somewhat limited combat experience, it was impossible for her to ignore it completely. Now, as a result, her enhancement magic had been disrupted.

Unfortunately for Wendy, Loretta was not about to give her time to figure things out for herself.

"Look out Wendy!" Carla warned as she flew Wendy outside of the blast radius of Loretta's roar. The roar literally screamed past and Wendy could tell that a direct hit might have seriously ended the fight right then and there.

Wendy attempted to counter-attack with a Sky Dragon's Roar, the impressive winds billowing out of her lungs careened toward Loretta, but her masked figure managed to leap out of the way as Wendy's wind sliced through the ground. As soon as she had breath Wendy tried to call out to Loretta.

"Loretta-san please snap out of it! I'm your friend, Wendy! Please remember!" Once again her pleas fell on deaf ears as this time, Loretta was the one to charge the tiny mage. Loretta jumped toward her, twisted her body to let her legs snap around, firing her Sound Dragon Talons at Wendy. Wendy gritted her teeth and sent her own Sky Dragon Talons at Loretta. Air and Sound slammed into each other, creating a small sonic boom from the collision. Still some of their respective skills passed through to hit both dragon slayers. Vibrations jarred Wendy and Carla's bodies while Loretta received a few small cuts, but this did not slow her down as she rapidly approached the pair.

"No you don't!" Hissed Carla as she managed to carry Wendy out of Loretta's way so she passed harmlessly by and landed back on the ground. Loretta was quick on her feet though and almost as soon as she landed the sound slayer was airborne again, rocketing back toward Wendy and Carla. Carla wasn't expecting such a quick second assault and unfortunately didn't react fast enough as Loretta was already on top of them.

Hands clenched together like a hammer, Loretta struck the pair down to the ground. With a resounding crash of dust and dirt the two screamed as they started to bounce along the ground, quite battered from the attack. Wendy gasped as the wind was knocked out of her on impact, but she somehow managed to find the strength to stand. Already the young mage was starting to look the worse for wear, her hair was matted, dirt covered her body from the earlier impact, and several scrapes and bruises had already started to appear. The difference in strength between the two without her enhancements was becoming quite clear.

"Loretta-san, please stop this. I know this isn't you! The Loretta-san I know would not be this cruel!" Wendy blurted out as her eyes started to tear up. Loretta's silent, helmeted figure marched up to Wendy like a harbinger of death. The figure stood in front of Wendy for a moment as if hesitating, but then it struck Wendy with a fierce fist to the stomach, causing Wendy to double-up over her fist.

"Wendy!" Carla shouted in terror as she watched Wendy from her knocked down position a few meters away. "Loretta, stop hurting Wendy!" Carla grimaced as the young exceed started to get up despite her obvious pain. "How could you do that to someone who looks up to you!"

Loretta didn't say anything as she lifted Wendy up by the front of her dress, bringing her face up to her helmet, the cold exterior seemed to mock all the young dragon slayer's efforts at reaching her friend. Wendy stared into that faceless mask, feeling helpless as tears started to fall down her cheeks. There was little she could do against the obvious power gap.

There was no way to tell what Loretta was thinking, or even if she was thinking at all as the two stared at each other. That faceless void seemed to want to swallow Wendy up and decimate her soul, she wanted to just look away but she didn't. Wendy scrunched up her face as she prepared for a beating as Loretta brought up a fist to pummel her face in, but then Wendy remembered a certain encounter.

Deerhound shook his head, the bear's fluffy fur shaking back and forth from the movement. "No, if I am not mistaken you are the only one who will be able to save her. It will be difficult no doubt but, I believe you will find the answer to this dilemma in the friendship you have formed with her."

"My friendship with Loretta-san?"

"Yes."

"But I-I don't understand?"

"You will, when the time comes."

"That's right Deerhound gave me that advice, now if I can just figure it out…" Wendy's mind then went back to an event a few weeks ago and the conversation that had followed.

Flashback

Wendy looked at the older Dragon Slayer with respect as the two walked away from the authorities building where they had just deposited a bunch of bad guys. They had been a small group of mages fairly powerful in their own right, but Loretta had single-handedly beat down the lot of them with her powerful sound magic. It had been a simple B-class mission that the two had taken together but the speed at which the bad guys had been beaten was rather astonishing.

Sure there were mages in Fairy Tail that could had done it faster and in some cases more explosively, but Loretta was quite an accomplished fighter. For the young Wendy, having a female model that used the same type of magic was quite a thing to have. Wendy could not help but feel happy to be with such a person at last.

"Wow Loretta-san! You're quite amazing you know that." Wendy beamed at the Sound Slayer as they walked along.

"Oh it was nothing really." Loretta tried to brush it off with a slight laugh and nervously scratched her nose before she caught herself and quickly put her hand down. "Anyway you're really amazing yourself Wendy, especially with that support magic of yours. That extra boost you gave me made it almost too easy!" Loretta patted Wendy on the head with a grin.

"Well, I'm glad to have helped even a little." Wendy responded but then her voice sort of fell near the end of the sentence. "Since a little is all I can really do…"

"Oh come on, you don't really mean that Wendy!" Loretta tried to reassure her but it didn't really seem to get through.

"Your powers are so amazing Loretta-san! You can use sound to break through enemy defenses, shatter weapons, even easily locate the enemy! Your magic really is great and powerful; I sometimes feel like mine is…well rather limited." Wendy looked down, her earlier cheerfulness going away causing Loretta to blow some wind out her lips in a huff.

"Ah you just haven't had as much experience as me. Now let me just admit my sound magic is very useful, strong, and can easily bypass most magical and physical defenses, barring like sound mufflers or something, but you know Wendy, there was once this guy I fought who completely countered my powers."

Wendy went wide-eyed at the revelation. "Really, how?"

"I don't like telling it to people but I think I can trust you, also not many people have magic capable of it anyway." Loretta stopped walking and quickly made sure no one else was around. "Well you see the guy had a very simple power, normally not all that useful but for me it was the worst." Loretta got closer to Wendy and in a dramatic fashion announced, "it was the power of nothing!"

"Umm, err what Loretta-san?" Wendy asked completely confused by the proclamation.

"Nothing! He could literally make a space around him filled with absolutely nothing, not even air! There I was going to clock him when he activated his power, falling into that nothingness I found I was unable to unleash any of my powers!"

"What did you do?" Wendy asked, wondering how Loretta managed to win.

"Umm, well actually I kinda got owned, thankfully I wasn't alone and a partner of mine managed to snipe the guy, disrupting his magic long enough for me to send him into the ground. Well the point is that sound magic has to have something to travel through, thankfully air is one of those things of which there is a lot of! Well that guy managed to create the perfect vacuum with his magic and I couldn't do a thing about it, and of course there are always sound reduction magic and sound resistant materials too which can be a pain for me. Well just saying I got my weaknesses too ya know?"

"But, Loretta-san, why would you tell me your weakness?"

"Not sure, but like I said, it's only been a little while but I trust you Wendy. Every magic has its weaknesses and strengths. Besides, if my partner knows my weakness then you can cover for me, right Wendy!" Loretta grinned and they continued on their way.

End Flashback

"You were right Deerhound; I did find the answer in my friendship with Loretta-san." Wendy had taken a few strikes to the face at this point and she was starting to bleed a little but now she had a plan. Wendy kicked up into Loretta's helmet, causing a great 'clang' and shot herself into the air with her air magic.

"Carla!" She screamed and quickly Carla raced toward her, grabbed her and headed into the sky. "Alright Carla just keep this position, I know what I need to do!" Wendy stretched her arms outward and a small, circular vortex of air started to force around Wendy. Faster and faster it went, the small orb of air becoming a raging wind tunnel.

"Hold your breath Carla!" Carla quickly obeyed, unsure of what Wendy was planning but the young exceed trusted her completely. Wendy took a deep breath and inhaled the entire interior of the orb of wind right before Loretta fired her Sound Dragon Howl. Carla shut her eyes in anticipation of the sound blast tearing them right out of the sky, but she did not feel or hear anything. She popped her eyes open in confusion as they hovered above Loretta who fired another blast at them.

Carla watched in amazement as the destructive wave merely curved around them, the sound passing harmlessly by as there was literally nothing, inside the bubble they were in. Carla wanted to congratulate Wendy but due to a lack of air thought better of it. There they were, floating in a void completely out of reach of Loretta's powers.

Loretta then crouched on the ground and jumped into the sky at them. This was Wendy's chance! She only had one move she could do but if she timed it just right, maybe she could win! Wendy kept up the torrent of wind, keeping the air out of their bubble as she readied her attack.

Loretta was coming right at them, ready to plow into the two with her fists. Wendy watched with intense concentration, waiting for just the right moment. Closer, closer, then it happened just as Loretta entered into her airless bubble. Wendy unleashed a torrent of air from her tiny lungs, all the air from the inside of the bubbled turned into a might Sky Dragon's Roar. The powerful winds smashed right down on top of Loretta and smashed the Dragon Slayer down to Earth with a mighty crash.

Wendy released the wind bubble and descended to Earth with Carla. "You did it Wendy! You really did it!" Carla exclaimed as they examined Loretta's body. From the impact a giant crack had formed on Loretta's helmet, the crack grew many more cracks and soon enough the helmet shattered, showing Loretta's true face. She had some intense helmet hair and looked like she had been through the wringer, but overall not that bad for someone who had just taken a full blown Sky Dragon Roar to the face, the helmet had been good for something.

Loretta managed to sit up, unsteadily her eyes were unfocused but by the second seemed to be getting back their usual light. "W-Wendy, heh I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused. Blast, I really gave you a beating didn't I?" Loretta managed to stand up on her feet just as an overjoyed Wendy tackled her.

"Loretta-san!" Wendy cried as she plunged her face into her chest, "I was afraid you weren't going to come back!"

"Sorry, but-" Suddenly Loretta's demeanor changed completely into a rather dark and sinister tone, "you didn't really think it was only the helmet that gave me control over her body!" Loretta suddenly started to crush Wendy in a deadly grip, trying to break her in half.

"Ouch! Loretta-san! I-I know you can beat him! You hear me! Loretta-san can beat you!" Wendy screamed in pain as the pressure started to build up.

"Oh please, as long as my chip is inside her head there is no way she can disobey me!" Loretta's nasty grin then turned into a friendlier smirk. "Oh I see, something in my head huh?" Before the one controlling her could fully figure out what was going on, Loretta managed to take her left hand, and punch herself in the head with a sound infused fist. The vibration was set to take out a foreign, metallic object, in this case crystal, of which the chip's circuitry was partly composed.

Loretta grimaced as she heard a nasty pop in her head and both she and Wendy collapsed to the ground. They both panted and groaned as they supported each other. "Loretta-san?" Wendy asked as she looked into Loretta's eyes. "Are you alright?"

Loretta tried to smile but only grimaced; after all she had essentially knocked herself out with that last attack. "Ya, I'm finally back in my right mind. Thank you Wendy for giving me the strength to fight back, I couldn't have done it without your reminders of who I am and one nasty tornado sized attack to boot! I really am sorry for all I've done..."

They managed to both stand up despite their various wounds. This time it was Loretta who looked down, battered and beaten in more ways than one. "You know Loretta-san; it was you who gave me the strength to fight on. I just knew there had to be some way to get you back, and you even gave me the key to figuring it out. Thank you Loretta-san." Wendy smiled and started to wipe away the tears from her eyes as she couldn't help the geysers from unleashing their loads.

"Well, glad to have you as my friend Wendy, ugh I hope we can still do something to get back at these guys! I can't wait to pummel that Yashe guy who did this to me! Well if I can even manage to stand after all that…" The two managed to laugh a little but then turned around to see where they could be of assistance.

Author's Note: Well dang it has been a long time. Been busy teaching overseas and stuff and this kind of fell by the wayside I'm afraid. Still I hate having an unfinished work so time to get back at it. Updated Charle - Carla, just like how I used to have Gerard - Jellal. Old habits die hard I guess. Anyway time to get with the times. I hope you enjoyed Wendy's battle, probably one of the best battle scenes in this series. Less about the action and more about Wendy figuring out how to counter Loretta's magic. Comments appreciated as always. Hopefully I'll find time to finish this work soon.