Chapter 17: The Beast

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or High School DxD. The former is owned by Hiro Mashima and the latter is owned by Ichiei Ishibumi

Crash!

Strong vibrations were sent throughout the area again. Nastu knew Gajeel and Elfman must be fighting the beast right now. If those small earthquakes were coming from this beast, then they had their work cut out for them. Natsu was flying as fast as he could trying to get to them in time. He wasn't sure if Akeno and Meredy were keeping up due to the urgency the situation called for. That is something he would regret later on.

Meanwhile with Akeno

"Lightning Dragon's Talon!"

Akeno charged up some purple lightning in her foot and rammed it into the cloaked assailant in front of her. She slid back a few feet away as she dug in her heels and clutched her gut. This woman obviously had very good endurance since she wasn't sent flying by that attack. They are currently battling in one of the side streets of the ravaged town. This assailant may have gotten the drop on Akeno at first, but once she activated her Lightning Drive there were no more surprises.

"You feel those vibrations! There is a monster attacking this town and I have to help my team stop it! This situation between us doesn't matter!" Akeno shouted while pointing in the direction of the loud vibrations.

"How ironic. You actually care for the well being of this town. If you think that will clear your conscience, those towns you destroyed are still gone forever." The mystery woman said stoically.

"Is that what this is about? If this is about revenge, I truly feel bad for what I have done and I am no longer a part of Grimoire Heart."

"You are almost right. This is like revenge, but it is also more than that. I'm here for what you've done to Natsu and to prevent you from doing any more harm to him."

"This is about Natsu! This has to be some misunderstanding. I have made things right with him and even joined his guild. I'm here on a job with him right now. Ask him yourself. He'll vouch for me."

"I am aware that Natsu allowed you to join Fairy Tail and convinced the Magic Council to pardon you. He always was a very forgiving person. I however am not." The woman pointed her sheathed blade at Akeno. "I can't forgive you for trying to end the life of the only man I've ever loved. He may trust you now, but I can't allow him to make that mistake. I will prevent you from harming him any further by extinguishing your life. It may be against his wishes, but I'm doing it for his own good."

'Love? Don't tell me I have more competition. I thought this was done with after Levy. I didn't know Natsu had so many women after him. Is it weird that this just makes me want him more?' Akeno asked herself.

"Who are you exactly? What is your relationship with Natsu?" Akeno asked curiously trying to reason with the woman.

"I guess I can show you my face at this point. This mask has been bothering me anyway." The assassin took off the black ninja mask and revealed her identity.

"My name is Kagura Mikazuchi of the Mermaid Heel Guild. Natsu is a very close companion to me who I have deep admiration for."

Crash!

Another miniature earthquake shook the buildings around them.

'Damn it! I really hope they're doing alright. I don't have time to be wasting.' Akeno was starting to worry upon hearing the destructive noises from far away.

"Look if you really care about Natsu then you need to understand! As we speak, he and his team are battling a very dangerous monster. We need to head over there and help them. I know that you resent me for what I've done, but we can work this out later. The more time we waste here, the more likely Natsu will get hurt. Do you really want that to happen!" Akeno pleaded with Kagura.

Kagura just smirked at Akeno. "You have a point I shouldn't be wasting any time." She got into a fighting stance with her archenemy. "If you want this to be over as soon as possible then I suggest you stop struggling. Don't worry after I end your life, I will give Natsu all the help he needs."

'Did she even hear a word I said?' Akeno thought. "I think you're missing the point here."

Kagura swiftly lunged at Akeno after she finished her last sentence. "You're done!"

'She's insane.'

Meanwhile with Natsu's team

"This thing is insane!" Natsu exclaimed with tick marks on his head. Him, Gajeel and Elfman were breathing heavily from facing the onslaughts of this destructive creature. Natsu was wearing his armor Salamander Scales again due to the brute strength of the enemy before them. The beast was just as the mayor described. It had a metallic, spiked armor shell, a long tail with a spiked ball at the end, a horned head with a thick plate protecting it, and thick, muscular legs with sharp claws. It's capable of wrapping itself into a large spiked ball and rolling at great force. None of them had faced off against a dangerous monster of this magnitude. They were starting to understand why this is an S-class job request.

"It's a good thing you insisted all the citizens be evacuated from the city Natsu. This thing is rolling through buildings like it's child's play." Elfman said who was currently in his Full-Body Takeover: Beast Soul. His horned monster transformation was about the same size as the monster before them.

"Yeah. Normally we're the ones causing mass destruction. Make sure it's in the report that we didn't do any of this. I'm tired of using our job money to pay for damage bills done on the job." Gajeel said humorously despite the dire situation they were in. He was covered in his Iron Dragon Scales to defend himself as well, but most of them were cracked and some had already broken off from battle.

"Hey Elfman you're supposed to be an experts on beasts. You have any idea what this thing is." Natsu asked his beastly friend.

"I've heard of something like this, but I've never actually seen one." Elfman said in his deep beastly voice. "It's a rare species called a megadillo. Based on a few reports, it's metal shell is almost as tough as adamantine armor. Despite it being covered in metal, it could can still move pretty fast once it gains momentum. It's fairy intelligent and good at responding to attacks. There are so few encounters with this beast that they didn't mention any weaknesses."

"The reports may not mention weakness, but I might have some ideas just by observing it." Natsu said. "It doesn't look like that spiked tail can reach over it's large shell so the top of its head could be a blind spot. Also, its underbelly looks vulnerable since its shell isn't covering it down there."

"Good observations Salamander. The underbelly is probably the weak spot, but it's gonna hard getting close to that thing without being crushed." Gajeel said.

"Roar!"

Natsu was about to say something, but the megadillo decided to attack again. It lunged forward to pick up momentum before rolling into its cozy home and extending the spikes on its shell. The gang leaped of the way as the beast barreled towards them. However, It altered its direction towards them as it could sense their movement on the ground. The team was constantly on the defensive.

"Elfman! Try to hold it in place so me and Gajeel can attack! Natsu ordered.

"Got it!" Elfman responded.

The two dragon slayers lunged out of the way of the megadillo's path while Elfman stopped and stood strong like a brick wall. He pushed his muscular arms forward as he met the rolling ball of destruction. Elfman grunted in pain and the ground cracked beneath his feet as the megadillo tried to run him over. He grit his teeth as the spikes were cutting at his hands.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

"Iron Dragon's Lance: Demon Logs!"

Natsu drew in deep breath and spewed out a torrent of flames while Gajeel fired off multiple iron lances like a Gatling gun. The fire breath attack connected well, but the iron lances were just ricocheting off the shell. Elfman couldn't hold out any longer and finally broke from the force. The megadillo kept rolling until it slammed until a building.

Unfortunately, Natsu's fire didn't have any effect on it while Gajeel's lances only managed to scratch it.

"Damn it! We have to find a way to hit it's weak spot." 'If only Erza were here. She's always the one leading us on jobs and has had plenty of experience dealing with giant monsters. We need all the firepower we can get. What the hell happened to Akeno and Meredy! They should have caught up by now. I would go back for them, but I can't leave Elfman and Gajeel alone with this thing.' Natsu thought as he struggled with his new leadership role.

Elfman charged at the megadillo while it was still wrapped up in a ball. The megadillo sensed him approaching and quickly uncurled itself to knock Elfman back with its giant spiked tail. Elfman could feel the wind get knocked out of him as the spiked ball slammed into his gut and sent him sprawling on the ground.

"Damn...that metal...is strong stuff." Elfman said in between breaths. "We have to come up with something soon guys. Staying in this takeover for too long will drain too much magic out of me."

The beast turned around towards the group preparing to roll out again.

"Maguilty Sodom!"

A barrage of teal swords came shooting out towards the megadillo making a direct hit. The beast cried out in pain as the swords pierced through it.

"What the!" Natsu looked in the direction the words were coming from and saw that Meredy was the one firing off those swords.

"Don't just stand there staring. Attack!" Meredy exclaimed. She was right. The group finally had an opening now that the beast was in pain.

"You heard the girl! Get em guys!" Natsu shouted. Elfman and Gajeel quickly nodded and wasted no more time standing around.

"Mmmmannnn!" Elfman roared as he charged towards the beast and slammed his fist into the side of its head where it wasn't protected by armor.

"Iron Dragon's Sword!"

Gajeel's right arm formed into an iron chainsaw sword. The spiked tips on the sword spun around making a buzzing noise. The blade sliced deep into the megadillos leg where it was also vulnerable. The beast cried out more as blood seeped out of its wound.

"Fire Dragon's Eruption!"

Natsu slammed his fist into the ground making a path of flames flow towards the megadillo. When the flames were underneath the megadillo an an erupting tower of flames shot out right underneath it. The eruption exploded underneath the beast causing smoke to cover the area.

"Alright! Awesome job Meredy!" Natsu said thankfully. "How were you able to hurt it that badly with those swords? We've been hitting it this entire time and couldn't do anything to it."

"It's a rare Lost Magic called Maguilty Sense. This magic attacks the opponent's sense of pain directly. Any attack that lands will cause excruciating pain. Those swords I can use are made of pure magic. Since this a sensor-type magic it is reflected off the castors will." Meredy explained in a lecturing manner.

"Gotta hand it to yeah kid that was really good." Gajeel complimented.

"So manly! Sorry for neglecting you earlier Meredy." Elfman said.

Meredy's face was getting red from all the praise she was receiving. "Uh...Thanks you guys. I'm glad I could be useful to you...Wait what do you mean by manly!" This kind of thing was new to Meredy. Ever since she joined Fairy Tail people have barely payed any attention to her. She was just as neglected at Grimoire Heart for her childlike appearance and uninteresting character. She was happy to see people noticing her.

The smoke finally cleared to reveal the megadillo still standing strong. However, one of its legs was slightly damaged by Gajeel which might be able to hurt its mobility slightly. It's belly was still intact without any internal damage, but it did get scorched badly. Elfman's punch may have stunned it a bit, but he probably hurt his hand more than he hurt the beast. He's not gonna admit that though. It's still far from going down, but they managed to deal some decent damage in that small window of opportunity.

"Hang on why isn't here Akeno here!" Meredy just noticed she wasn't with the group.

"I was about to ask you that. She never caught up to us. Wasn't she with you?" Natsu asked.

"I lost sight of both you and her after you guys went flying towards the scene. Something must have happened to her."

"Damn it! How could I have let this go unnoticed. I have to get better at this leader stuff." Natsu cursed himself for losing track of his girlfriend.

"Don't worry. I'll go find her." Meredy quickly ran off to search for her best friend.

"Wait Meredy!" She was already running too fast to notice Natsu shouting at her. "I wish she would have let me go after her. Her magic is more useful at fighting this beast than the rest of ours. It's my fault for losing track of her in the first place. I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on them during all of these missions. Great now I've failed at three things; the role of a leader, boyfriend, and parole officer.

"Come on man this isn't you. You're new to having this kind of responsibility." Elfman reassured his friend. "It's natural that she wants to be the one to find her friend. I'm kind of glad she did because she's been acting harsh towards her lately."

"Elfman's right Salamander. Don't start getting down on yourself now. Don't make me knock some sense into you!" Gajeel shaked his fist at Natsu.

"You guys are right. Now's not the time for that. Let's just focus on holding this thing off."

The three of them turned towards the megadillo staring at it with refreshed determination. It stared right back with the same determination.

"I'm all fired up!"

Meanwhile with Akeno

"Archenemy Strong Form!"

"Lightning Dragon's Striker!"

Kagura and Akeno ran at each other with their respective attacks and clashed over a power struggle in the center of the abandoned street. The ground cracked beneath Akeno's feet as she tried to hold off the blunt force of Kagura's Archenemy while her body surged with purple lightning. Kagura had to close her eyes due to the amount of lightning shining her face and grit her teeth with the electric current shocking her body. The raw strength of her Archenemy was too much for Akeno though. The lightning dragon slayer finally broke and was sent sailing into a wall which cratered upon impact.

Kagura quickly struck her again with her Archenemy making the crater even larger. Blood poured out of Akeno's mouth as she suffered from more internal bleeding. Kagura jumped down back onto the street and took a few steps back

"Gravity Push X30"

"Aaaahhhhhhh!" Akeno screamed in agony as the gravity crushed her body against the building.

"X40."

"X50."

Kagura increased the pressure until Akeno went straight through the building.

'Hopefully that weakened her enough. I want to finish her off soon.' Kagura thought. She used her Gravity Magic to make her more weightless and jumped up into the building through the hole she sent Akeno through. Once she got inside she was expecting to find Akeno lying in front of her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Kagura scanned the vicinity but couldn't spot her. There were multiple large boxes scattered everywhere indicating this building must be a warehouse. This gave Akeno a lot of places to hide.

Kagura began to slowly walk in the large room completely disregarding the property damage she just did. She kept her Archenemy drawn in front of her as the huntress searched for her prey. She stopped as something on the ground caught her eye. It was a drop of fresh blood with more drops making a path of blood. She kept following the trail until it came to a dead end at one of the walls.

"Crash"

Kagura jerked her head to the sound of glass shattering to see one of the windows broken.

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!"

Kagura panicked as she heard Akeno's voice coming from outside of the wall in front of her. She instantly hit the deck as a stream of purple lightning blasted a hole into the wall. The attack went straight through the building and began to move sideways across the room. At this rate the building would collapse right on top of her. Kagura's eyes widened as she tried to think of something fast.

Outside of the building Akeno had blasted a whole section of the building causing the top part to collapse on itself. 'I hope Natsu won't be too upset with me. We'll just say that the monster did this. It's probably destroyed most of the city by now. Of course we could have stopped it sooner if it weren't for little miss samurai here!'

Just as the building was crumbling to pieces, Kagura came bursting through the roof with her Archenemy.

'Damn she's tough. I'm getting a little turned on by this.' Akeno licked her lips maliciously feeling the sadist inside her come out.

Meredy stopped in her tracks as she turned her head towards the sound of destruction that was coming from a another part of town.

"That has to be where she's at. She must be in trouble. Don't worry Akeno I'm coming!' Meredy took off at an even faster pace. She cursed her poor athletic ability.

When the dust cleared from the debris Akeno could see Kagura standing not too far in front of her. Both women were just panting heavily trying to catch their breath. Kagura was starting to look worse for wear. Her knees began drooping and she had a lot more cuts and bruises on her body. She broke through 3 floors of ceiling with her Archenemy: Strong Form and heightened gravity. She had no problem breaking free, but the impact did a number on her.

"You're starting to become troublesome." Kagura breathed out heavily as she gave a strong glare back at Akeno.

"Back atcha. Are you in pain? I sure hope that hurt." Akeno replied and smirked.

Kagura scoffed. "Just as I expected. You can try and change all you want but you're just like the rest of those sick dark mages that take pleasure in others misery. Natsu would never stay with someone like you."

Akeno frowned. 'Damn it! What am I thinking? Even if this lady pisses me off she's still Natsu's friend. It would be so easy to just kill her, but he would never forgive me. I have to remember that.'

"It's obvious what I'm doing now isn't sufficient enough to kill you." Kagura said monotonously. "It's time." Kagura wrapped her hand firmly around the handle of her archenemy. It felt that everything went silent at that moment.

"Archenemy Release!"

Meanwhile with Natsu's team

Currently Natsu, Gajeel, and Elfman were being pinned against the building by the megadillo. Gajeel was trying to push it back with his Iron Dragon's Club, Elfman was in his Beast Soul: Lizardman form, and Natsu was trying to weaken it with multiple fire attacks.

"I don't know how much longer I can hold this thing back!" Gajeel yelled as his clubs began to break. As it looked like they were about to be crushed a bright shimmering light covered the area. The men looked ahead and saw a gigantic beam of magical energy heading straight for them.

"What the..." They all began to say before the beam struck them straight on. Actually it was more like the megadillo took the attack which caused it to smash into the guys, thus demolishing the building in front of them. The beam went on for about ten seconds before it died down.

The energy beam left a trail of rubble from the buildings in its path. The group slowly emerged trying to make sense of the situation.

"What just happened?" Natsu asked bluntly.

"Holy crap did you guys see that?!" Elfman asked in a surprised manner.

"I felt that." Gajeel said in an annoyed tone.

Luckily, Akeno was able to move out of the way in time to avoid that giant blast of magical energy.

'That was close! I can't believe that much energy came out of that one sword!' Akeno thought.

"Lightning Dragon's Discharge!"

She flung both her arms forward sending two blasts of sparking lightning towards Kagura.

"Archenemy Slashing Form!"

Kagura's archenemy glowed white as she dashed forward and sliced through the lightning.

'Is she cutting through my lightning?!' Akeno was so surprised that she wasn't expecting Kagura to appear directly in front of her so fast. She cried out in pain as Kagura's Archenemy cut through the side of her waist. She clutched her side and used lightning to burn it before she bled out.

Kagura came back just as fast and Akeno was trying to move as fast to keep up with her. She wasn't as agile with her Lightning Drive worn off and Kagura's use of Gravity Magic makes her light enough to be so fast. If only she had some kind of metallic shell like the Megadillo because there was nothing to defend her from all the swift blade strikes. She was cut up as bad as Natsu from their last battle.

Once Akeno had an opportunity she turned her body into lightning and went straight through Kagura.

"Lightning Dragon's Slash!"

Akeno quickly reformed her body and slashed straight down Akeno's back. her blood traced Akeno's fingertips as her lightning claw sliced into her skin. She jumped out of the way as Kagura swung her blade around looking to slice in her half like butter.

"Lightning Dragon's Scattershot!"

Lightning orbs rained down onto the field towards Kagura.

"Archenemy Flying Form!"

All of the orbs exploded at once before they even had a chance to hit Akeno. 'I can't believe she can cut through my lightning! How am I supposed to beat her now!' Akeno was really starting to panic. With the revelation of the true capabilities of Kagura's Archenemy, she wasn't sure that could make it out of this alive.

"Gravity X50!"

Akeno was flung back down and slammed into the ground hard.

"This is your retribution!" Kagura shouted as she ran ready to finish this. Akeno knew she was too weak to move out of the way in that instant.

"No." That was the only word Akeno had time to say before Kagura was upon her.

.

.

.

"Aaahhh!" Kagura cried out in agony as she felt a sudden pain in her right hand causing her to release the grip on her Archenemy dropping it to the ground.

Kagura slid down to her knees and looked at her at her hand in confusion. There was no wound. "What is this?!"

Akeno was not confused however. In fact she was smiling. She could see the pink bracelet glowing on Akeno's right wrist.

"That's enough out of you!"

The two girls turned their in the direction of the voice

Meredy was standing off to the side gritting her teeth. She also had a pink bracelet around her wrist and a dagger plunged into her right hand.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I was rushing towards the end because I didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer. Don't worry I'm still not giving up on this story.

See you guys next time!

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