Ice Hydra

"So Jellal's here?" Lucy asked, "I thought he was…"

"I thought so too," Erza interrupted, as she stared into the distance, as if looking for him, "But he is definitely here, and Brain has some plan related to him."

"Any ideas about it?" Hibiki asked.

"None," Erza answered, "My first guess would be something related to Zeref."

"Why are things always about Zeref?" Lucy asked.

"There's a reason he was the most infamous wizard to have lived," Hibiki said, "Anything related to him is trouble."

"What about that thing we saw at the Tower of Heaven?" Happy asked. There was a pause, as Erza and Lucy both shifted uncomfortably.

"What did you see?" Hibiki asked.

"The Cursed One," Erza said after a long pause.

"I've heard of it," Hibiki said with a cringe, "I bet that would also be trouble."

"Trust me, that's a major understatement," Erza said grimly.

(with Gray and Juvia)

Gray was getting frustrated; this fight was seriously starting to drag. This chase was going on for a while, and yet Racer showed no signs of slowing down.

"You good, Juvia?" he asked. He understood that this wave being produced by Juvia's magic, which was finite.

"Juvia's okay," Juvia answered, "But I have to focus on the wave for now." Gray nodded in understanding, as he brought his hands together.

"Ice Make: Harpoon!" he said, holding up his hand, as multiple spears of ice came from his hands, and shot at Racer, who easily evaded them.

"Is that really the best you can do?" he sneered. Gray clenched his teeth slightly.

"Can you pull up closer to him?" he asked Juvia.

"Juvia can try."

"That's good enough for me!" Gray responded, as Juvia clenched her own teeth, and poured more energy into the wave. It grew in speed, and soon came up close to Gray, who took that as an opportunity, and leapt off the wave and onto Racer's bike.

"The hell do you think you're doing!" Racer snapped.

"Stopping you!" Gray answered, as he started to wrestle Racer on the bike. In theory, it was supposed to be Gray's "master plan" to bring Racer down, which was in hindsight, a pretty lame idea. Fortunately, Juvia was a quick thinker, and got a better idea. Bring her arms down, she collapsed the wave, sending a surge of water over the area. Distracted by Gray's attack, Racer and his bike were caught him in the torrent, which sent both him and Gray tumbling away.

"Gray!" Juvia cried as she skidded to the ground, chasing after the two.

"I'm good!" Gray said, jumping up, finally having a real excuse to strip, putting his hands together. With a scowl, Racer also leapt to his feet.

"Ice Make…" This time Gray couldn't even finish as he was suddenly socked into the stomach by Racer, and downed. Juvia cried out, and moved to help, but Racer suddenly materialized behind her. With a cry, Juvia got struck in her side, not having enough time to activate her Water body.

"You guys aren't bad, but you're still too slow," Racer said, as he advanced on Gray, and put his foot on his stomach, before pulling out a knife on his belt, "Too bad you weren't faster." He then held up his knife, and got ready to end it.

"Ice Make: Tiger!" Racer managed to dodge it again, though he was slightly slower in the dodge than he was earlier.

"You okay?" Lyon asked, offering a hand, which Gray took.

"I've had worse," Gray answered, wiping his brow.

"It looks like his reaction time isn't perfect," Lyon said, "That might be something we may be able to exploit."

"I'm willing to try anything at this point," Gray said, "We need to deal with this guy now."

"I've got an idea, just follow my lead!" Lyon said, as he ripped off his shirt, and put his hands together.

"You aren't going to me carry you around again, are you?" Gray sniped.

"If anything, I might be the one who has to carry you," Lyon said with a smirk, before shouting, "Ice Make: Falcon!" A a flight of ice falcons came from his hands, and soared at Racer, who easily dodged them all.

"That's…" Before he could finish, a massive ice gorilla loomed over him, which he also had to dodge. Lyon kept sending beast after beast against the dark mage, but didn't seem to be hitting him. That confused Gray some, since he knew that Lyon had better aim than that, and while Racer was fast, it shouldn't have been that easy even for him. But that was when Gray caught onto what Lyon was doing, and he smirked.

"You're going to have to be much faster if you want to catch me with your animas," Racer said, glaring at his opponent.

"Who said I was trying to do that?" Lyon answered with a smirk of his own. Racer was confused for a second, only to sense a presence.

"Ice Make: Great Hammer!" A massive hammer of solid ice came down on Racer, kicking up a massive amount of dust. Gray dropped to the ground, wiping his brow. That was a big construct, and those took up a lot of magic.

"That was good," Lyon said, "Though I have to wonder where that was with Frieze."

"You weren't worth it," Gray said sarcastically. Lyon was about to retort, but then the ice broke away, and they saw… nothing.

"What the…"

"Did ya really think it'd be that easy?" a voice commented. Lyon didn't even have time to turn, as he was punched in the small of his back, and was slammed into a tree. Gray turned to face Racer, only to be kicked away himself. However, while he was distracted, a massive surge of water came down, and washed him away.

"Gray!" Juvia cried as she ran to her beloved.

"I'm good," Gray answered, slowly sitting up, "Go check on Lyon." Juvia went to do exactly that, scurrying over to the other ice mage.

"Are you okay?" she asked, leaning down. Lyon groaned, as he rubbed his head and sat up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, "How's…" He stopped when he looked up, and saw Juvia's face up close. It was then that her beauty really dawned on her; her blue hair, her soft, youthful face and large eyes. It was like Lyon was looking at an angel.

"Well, I'm definitely better with you here," Lyon said with a smile.

"Um.. that's good to hear," Juvia said with a somewhat surprised smile of her own, "Can you stand?"

"I think so, let me just…. GAH!" Lyon suddenly keeled over, a massive gash across his abdomen.

"Lyon!" Juvia and Gray cried out together.

"Still too slow," Racer sneered, as he rematerialized on a tree, twirling his knife through his fingers.

"You bastard!" Gray shouted, as he put his hands together, but Juvia beat him to the punch.

"Water Nebula!" A torrent of water blasted through the trees towards Racer, but he again dodged it, and he came at Juvia. This time, though, the Rain Woman had remembered to make sure her Water Body was active, and it phased through her without issue. Gray let himself be slightly relieved, knowing Juvia was at least safe for the time, but that didn't mean he was out of the woods yet. His first instinct was to go to Lyon, but then he remembered that he couldn't do anything to help at this point, and Racer had to be the first priority. He then chased after the fight. Eventually, they emerged out of the treelike, Racer skidding to a halt, as Juvia pursued.

"Water Slicer!" Blades of water shot at Racer, but he managed to dodge those as well. The Rain Woman knew that at the rate, this would devolve into a race to run out of magic power, and while Juvia's reserves were high, she had a feeling Racer's were higher. To that end, she thought as fast as she could, before noticing something out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she noticed what looked like birds, but they were going very fast. For a moment, Juvia was left wondering what the cause was, but it quickly clicked. That then finally gave her an idea.

As she got struck in the gut by Racer, the attack fortunately still phased through her, but since she couldn't keep eating into her reserves like this. Fortunately, she did have one technique in her arsenal; she tried not to use it, considering how much magic it took, and the fact it put more than a slight strain, but the alternatives weren't really making themselves apparent. Juvia then closed her eyes and concentrated, and summoned her most powerful, and dangerous technique.

"Water Hydra!" Right then, three massive, snakelike heads made out of water emerged from her back; they had glowing red eyes, and their mouths were filled with sharp teeth. Almost immediately, the Rain Woman got hit by the strain, causing her to nearly double over. Racer took a step back, surprised by this sudden technique.

"What's this now?" he demanded. Juvia naturally didn't provide an answer, and let out a cry as all the heads immediately lashed out. Racer moved to dodge them, and managed to avoid one strike, only for another head to come up behind him. To his surprise, Racer was unable to avoid it, and got washed away as the mouth closed around him.

"How in the hell did you do that?" he asked as he managed to get back up.

"You aren't actually moving fast, you're just slowing us down," Juvia explained between pants, as the heads struck at the air and gnashed their teeth, "But that kind of magic doesn't affect the Water Hydra. Since these things are guided by my instincts I don't need to think for them to act, and all they need to lash out at something is to sense someone's magic power." Racer narrowed his eyes, surprised that this girl was able to not only to figure out his weakness, but to be able to act on it. Despite this though, Juvia knew she hadn't won yet. The problem was, while this technique was powerful, it lacked the raw strength to really put a guy like Racer down.

Knowing that she still had to keep fighting, she brought the heads back up to keep fighting, only to nearly keel over; the strain was hitting hard and fast, and she didn't have an infinity amount of time. That was when Juvia felt a hand on her back. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Gray behind her.

"Gray…," she said softly.

"Let me carry some of the weight," he said.

"But…"

"We're guild mates," Gray said with a smirk, "That's enough." Juvia blinked in surprise, but quickly smiled, nodding.

"Right!" she said.

"Now I've got a plan, so just follow my cue." Juvia just nodded, somehow understanding his plan already. The two then both closed their eyes, and let their magic auras move. Light blue light from Gray combined with deep blue light from Juvia, before ice began to travel up the hydra's heads, until they were all fully encased. As a bonus, an additional crown of horns framed their heads, as well as a small ridge on their nose.

"Great, you froze the heads," Racer said, "Don't see how that's supposed to help." The Fairy Tail mages didn't answer, as they kept concentrating.

"ICE HYDRA!" The hydra opened all three of its jaws at once and launched forward, attacking from three sides. Racer just smirked. It didn't matter whether or not they understand how his magic worked, since they didn't have anyway to counter it. He then went to move, only to find that he couldn't.

"What the hell!" Racer said, looking down. His feet were frozen to the ground. It quickly dawned on him what had happened; Gray had frozen the soaked earth while Racer was distracted by the tried desperately to move, but the ice was too strong, and by the time he finally managed to break one foot free, he looked up to see the jaws about to enclose him.

"I'm… too slow?" was all Racer had time to say, before all three heads crashed into him.

My prayer… to be faster than anyone else….

(somewhere in the forest)

"Alright," Brain said, as he wrapped up his discussion with the Masked Man, "You have a deal." The man nodded, and put his mask back on.

"Just a word of warning," Brain said, as his "friend" departed, "I can't be liable for 'accidents'." The Masked Man stopped briefly, but then quickly darted back into the forest. As he did, Brain sudden doubled over, grabbing his face, as one of his tattoos faded away.

"Damn you Racer," he grumbled, "I really do have to do it all myself."

(back with Gray and Juvia)

"Well, that's finally done," Gray said, dusting off his hands

Meanwhile, Lyon had managed to limp out of the forest, having managed to perform some basic first aid, and looked upon Gray and Juvia embracing. His eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing slightly at the sight of the two.

"Gray…"

Note: Sorry about the year of no updates, but life and such; I'll leave it at that.

Be sure to review.

Announcement: In a couple days, I'm leaving for Air Force basic training. For several weeks I'm going to be in a blackout, and then I go into technical school, and while I will have access to all my electronics again, I'm probably going to be very busy. Just wanted to leave on a positive note.

This is snakeboy33 signing off for now.