Chapter 63 - A Father's Fight

Fairy Tail: Paths of the Soul

The hum of the magic walls echoed off the walls as a bead of sweat ran down Davin's forehead. Vax had begun to chuckle since the walls went up, and the strange chill in the air seemed to have followed them to the arena. It was all quite unsettling to face all at once. "Well?" He asked, tightening his fists. "Where do we go from here?"

The chuckling stopped, and Vax cupped the chin of his mask. "You are indeed powerful." He mused, sounding like he was talking to himself. "Dangerous, very dangerous. I'll need assistance, more so than my seekers can provide." He slumped over slightly, holding his arm out to the side. Davin sensed magic power building up; Vax was trying to requip something. He shot forward, flying across the arena at lightning speed, and threw a strong right hook. Vax's head shot up, and he extended his other hand. "Shield!"

Davin's fist collided with a light blue, transparent wall, and the impact shook the entire room. He gasped in surprise; unable to remember the last time someone had stopped one of his punches so easily. What was more, something stood behind Vax, whatever he had summoned with his Requip magic. It was a machine of some sort, almost as tall as Davin was, and bearing an unsettling resembling a coffin. He made that distinction based on the fact that inside the open case was what looked like a person, but they blinked out of existence before he could take a second look.

Sensing something behind him, Davin jumped back just as a sword fell across his vision. He pulled back, about to go on the offensive, when he realized it wasn't Vax. He was shorter, younger looking, and covered in bandages from head to toe. He clutched a short sword in one hand, and carried an array of throwing knives from a coat with the arms tied across his waist. Something else that hit him was the smell, causing him to instantly grab at his nose. It smelled as if something had died.

"Very good, Nico." Vax chuckled, calling another coffin like machine from behind his barrier. "I'll be with you in a moment, Davin of Blazing Soul." He turned and summoned a third case, then held out his other hand and called a fourth. Each glowed a shade of blue, seemingly flowing from the machinery around the case into the body held within. Not believing what he was seeing, Davin stood in shock as each of the bodies stepped out of their perch.

"What..." Davin began, watching the bodies, the corpses, slowly trudge forward. "What is this?"

"These are my vanguard." Vax said simply, gesturing to the body from the second coffin he'd summoned. It wore a long white lab-coat, and a ratty looking guitar hung of one of it's shoulders. His skin was a sickly green, and appeared to be falling off the man's bones. "Eddie." Vax gestured to him, then to a woman who stepped up to Vax's other side, this one sporting a light blue dress with a bandana covering her mouth and a sickly blue complexion. "Siri..."

He motioned to the last body, a man with blotchy, blistered skin currently trying to light a cigarette. He resembled a bandit, sporting baggy pants, a long, open chested poncho with a triangular cowboy hat. A large scar ran across his chest, and the skin below it on his stomach was a drastically different color than the rest of him. The cigarette finally lit, and after a long puff, the man gave Davin a wide grin. "The name's Keel." As he spoke, a thin wisp of smoke escaped through a hole in the side of his neck. "Don't remember much else."

Davin was still shocked at what he was seeing. They all looked... Dead. Which, while ridiculous at first thought, certainly explained the smell. "What is this? What have you done?" He gasped in disbelief. "Necromancy?"

"In a way, yes." Vax nodded, slowly raising into the air. "They are undead, yet at the same time are much more than simple, mindless zombies. But defective all the same." A strange calm fell over the arena, and the bandit zombie, Keel, snuffed out his finished cigarette under his heel. "But enough talking!" Vax roared, the fury returning to his voice. "Give me your magic, Davin of Blazing Soul!"

Like a flash, Nico, the teleporter, disappeared, coming down at Davin from overhead. Davin deflected the assault, but in the same time, Keel and Siri had flanked him. Davin tucked his arms in to prepare for the assault, when Eddie, the guitar player, raised his guitar into the air. "I-I-It's time to r-r-rock!" His gargled voice bellowed, before striking his fingers across the cords of his interment.

A painful howl filled the arena, forcing Davin to cover his ears to block out the sound. In that moment, the other corpses set upon him, unfazed by the noise. A black liquid oozed from the stitched scar across Keel's chest, collecting in his hand. Davin spun and threw a wide right hook, his fist connecting with a large blob of the black liquid. Keel flew back, but landed on his feet. What was more, Davin's fist was entrapped in the goo, which Keel maintained control over through small, sticky strands gathered up in his fist. Davin turned to counterattack, when he felt a sudden stinging sensation on his shoulder.

The sting turned cold after an instant. Siri was clutched to his back, a thin veil of frost extending from her hand. He gritted his teeth, reaching back and tossing the woman into Eddie, bringing the assault on his ears to an end. He decided to deal with Keel next, but just as he turned his direction, he felt a sharp poke in the flat of his back. Vax had returned, sword in hand, though he once again failed to do pierce his flesh. "Give it to me..." It sounded like he was begging this time. "Give me your magic!" He reached up toward Davin's face, but Davin swatted him away with a strong blow from his elbow.

Vax disappeared in a flash, reappearing above Davin's head. Nico appeared with him, and their two crossed swords bore down on the guild master. Keel approached from the side, while Siri charged at him from the front. Taking a quick breath, Davin hunkered down, knowing he'd have a hard time fending them off like this. He dropped to one knee, bringing his arms up over his head, and shouted. "Spikes!"

True to the spells name, an array of metallic, flesh color spikes erupted from all over Davin's body. They stretched outwards, poised to impale everyone at once. Keel escaped harm, using the black liquid as a bungee cord to pull himself back towards the edge of the arena. Niko escaped as well, blinking out of existence mere inches from Davin's assault. Siri fared worse, two of the spikes punctured her chest, while a third caught her shoulder, tearing part of her bandanna along the way. She skidded past Davin, landing in a crumpled heep not far away.

Vax fared little better. He threw up his hand to catch himself, seemingly forgetting about the Teleportation Magic he shared with Niko. He landed on Davin's shoulder with one leg, which Davin could feel being ripped to pieces by his spines. With a grimace, Davin turned as Vax disappeared again, hearing the telltale buzz in the air behind him. The spikes on his arm retracted, but his muscles began to swell, doubling in size by the time he'd turned around. "Twenty-five present: Smash Hammer!"

His bolstered fist collided with Vax's torso, sending him careening across the arena. He bounced off the side wall, before smashing hard into the one at the far and of the ring and flopping to the ground like a broken rag-doll with an unsettling metallic clink.

Davin gripped his wrist, something felt wrong when his fist hit the mark, and it didn't take him long to figure it out when Vax sat up. The sleeve of his coat had torn away, from bicep to wrist, yet there was no skin. No muscle, not even any bone, just a mechanical joint for an elbow ensnared in the shredded fabric of his clothing. It was the same with the leg he'd impaled: no blood, just machine parts. Despite all this, when he coughed, red, human blood leaked out from behind his helmet. "What are you?" Davin asked. "What are all of you?"

Vax chuckled, developing into a pained cough almost instantly. "I'm just a man." He mumbled, manually bending part of his mechanical leg back into place. "Just a man, on a mission. Doing whatever he has to." Another one of his mechanical insects appeared in his hand. Instead of attacking however, it began disassembling itself, adding its parts to the damaged portions of Vax's exposed, mechanical elbow. "I'm doing what I have to, that's all this is..."

"Damaged..." They both glanced at where Siri had fallen, and in a brief moment caught a glimpse of her face behind the bandanna. There was no skin, just bone, from everything below her nose to her throat. Just bleached white bone. "Taken damage... Need new plan... Now, must hide... Face, cold... In here..." Davin couldn't tell if she was rambling, or seemed honestly confused about her situation. But either way, it was a hard sight to witness.

"But now..." Vax interrupted Davin's train of thought. "Now we resume. It's encouraging to see you're not quite as invincible as you seem." He gestured towards him, but Davin knew what he meant. His shoulder still burned from Siri's ice attack. His magic could shield him from much, but extreme heat and cold where two things he was still susceptible to. "You use two magic's as well... How uncommon. Needle Magic and Muscle Magic, correct?"

Davin's whole body expanded, growing to match his already swelled arm. "If I need to." He cracked his knuckles, it'd been a long time since he'd been in a fight. Longer still that he'd had to exert himself this much. "Sorry to say, but I'm a pacifist at heart."

"Well I, am not." Vax hissed at him. "Eddie, resume!"

Davin heard the strum of a guitar, and spun around to see the musician on his feet again. "R-r-rock of s-strength!" Davin braced himself, but the sound was less harsh this time. It was nowhere close to pleasing, but hadn't seemed to do anything yet.

Not wanting to wait and see what was happening, Davin moved in for the kill. What he didn't anticipate however, was how quickly Keel would intercept him. Nor how strong he'd suddenly become when he delivered a strong kick to Davin's chest. It stopped the hulking man cold, and he threw up his arms to deflect the corpse's next blow. This one came just as strong as the first, despite standing almost three feet shorter than the guild-master, and Davin was actually knocked back a step. A strange glow emanated from his emaciated body, and he thumbed over his shoulder at Eddie. "Nice trick, huh? Like havin' our own enchanter."

Grunting in annoyance, Davin turned to counterattack as an array of knives ricocheted off he skin of his back. Nico appeared in a flash above his head, stabbing at him with a knife clutched between each finger. Smacking the corpse aside with the back of his fist, Davin realized he'd need a new plan. He was an up-close-and-personal kind of mage. One-on-one, he held an advantage. Being outnumbered like this, even as strong as he was, could become a real headache for him.

He'd made the mistake of falling into their motion, blindly swatting at each of them after they made an attack. He'd have to fight smart, as only two of them where able to hurt him thus far. And it was these two, Eddie the guitar player and Siri the ice mage, who he targeted first.

He charged at Siri, who likewise rushed him. She ducked under his initial punch, sliding under his arm on a slick of ice emanating form her hand. Davin spun to grab at her on the way past, but this too missed the mark, and the back of his fist collided with the magic barrier walls enclosing the ring. Keel dove at him next, a blob of black liquid collected in Keel's hand. "Bloody Spines!"

Dark red spears launched from the corpses hand, but Davin was just fast enough to dive out of the way, rolling on his shoulder to a crouched landing. Keeping the momentum, Davin continued to roll, tucking his legs in against his chest and throwing his weight forwards. He began to spin head over heals, with spikes growing form his arms, shoulders, and back. He targeted Eddie this time, rolling at him with the force of a wracking ball. "Nail Roller!"

With his magic propelling him forwards, he didn't think there was any way for the others to stop him in time. Though, that doesn't mean they didn’t try. Nico's knives rained down on him, and one of Keel's bloody tendrils tried to slow his charge. Neither proved effective, Nico's knives harmlessly bounced off his skin, while Keel's tether was ripped to shreds by the spikes. Eddie himself unleashed another burst of wailing sound, but this too did nothing to stop Davin's rolling assault.

Then, just as Davin prepared for impact, he felt a sudden chill wash past him, and found himself going off course. He stopped rolling, only to find a ramp of ice had sprung forth beneath him, which Davin had unknowingly ridden right up into the air. "Son of a..." He mumbled to himself, spotting Siri crouched close to the base of the ramp. He slammed his fists together, and his muscles expanded once again. He would've stood over ten feet tall now, where he actually on the ground and not in mid fall. "Fifty percent..."

Nico appeared before him in a flash, clutching Keel by the arm. "No ya don't!"

Davin threw up his arms to protect himself, rolling in mid air out of the way of Keel's bloody tendrils. He was close enough, and drew his leg into his chest. "Smash Hammer!" Keel recoiled, recalling his tendrils back to form a blob of blood between them. This did little good, the shock-wave alone blasted the undead bandit clear, throwing him into Nico and sending them both into the arena's far wall.

Davin re-positioned himself just as he began to fall. Eddie was right below him, and the others where trapped on the other side of the arena by Siri's ice wall. The musician stared back at him, before his torn mouth open much wider than any humans should. He hosted his guitar above his head, and shouted. "’R-rock- o-o-o-of Shatter!" A blast of sound rose up to meet him. Davin crossed his arms, but felt the force of the spell blast him back into the ceiling. This was perfect through, he knew he could outmatch a spell of this caliber.

Spikes sprouted from his forearms, and with a deep breath, he Davin kicked off the ceiling. The rafters cracked with such intensity that one could be forgiven for thinking that the building would cave in on them. His ears rung, but he shot like a bullet through Eddie's wailing music. He crossed his arms over his head, not sure he wanted to see what he was about to do. "Nail Press!"

Eddie barely had a second to react. His rotted skin was ripped to pieces by Davin's spikes, and his bones where crushed under the impact. The ramp of ice shattered, filling the inside of the arena in a dense, icy mist. The whole building shook; several of the windows near the roof of the arena shattered outwards, and even the magic walls keeping them all here flickered for a moment.

With a single wave of the guild master's hand, the mist cleared. Eddie, or what was left of him, lay in a broken heap on the ground. One of his hands twitched slightly, griping for anything to hold onto, and the raspy voice of the undead musician struggled to say something. Suddenly, a glowing, light blue mist puffed out from the man's body, and the movement ceased.

Eddie was dead once more.

Davin brushed a few pieces of the splintered guitar of his forearm, then glared at Siri, Nico, and Keel, all lined up in the center of the arena. "I'm sorry it's come to this..." He mumbled softly, despite the stern look in his eye. "The dead should be aloud to rest. Not be pushed into this... Barbarism."

"Yeah, ya say that..." Keel smirked at him, digging another cigarette out of his pocket. "If it helps, we don't have much of a say in the matter."

"Then I'll try and make this quick for you." Davin cracked his knuckles and began forward, preparing to start the fight anew.

Suddenly an intense numb feeling came over him, accompanied by an unsettling chill in the air. "Perfect..." A crazed, but a familiar voice behind him said. Davin glanced behind him to find Vax with a hand gripping his shoulder. "Beautiful, beautiful magic!"

Davin turned to swat Vax away, but his reaction was slow. His arms felt heavy, and he couldn't seem to conjure his magic. He grabbed blindly at him, but Vax blinked away before he got close. Davin spun again to go on the attack, but felt a deep, cold pain run down his side.

Suppressed, Davin clutched at the wound and dropped to his knees. Blood ran between his fingers, and he glanced up to see Vax hovering above his undead solders inspecting the tip of his now bloodied sword. "How..." He began, finding he was suddenly out of breath. "What did you just do?"

"A curious thing." Vax mumbled. It didn't sound like a response, more like he was thinking out loud. He made a small slash with his sword, splattering Davin's blood on the floor, before actually looking at him. "You use magic like an armor. Make yourself seem invincible while moving and attacking freely. But if I take that magic away, it creates a gap in your defenses." He began to chuckle, and Davin stood up to take a fighting stance. Vax pointed his blade at him, floating high above them in the air. "I think this will be a very different battle, from now on."

The night was going well for the mages of Blazing Soul, through it had turned into more of a night out among friends than rather than the double date it was intended to be. Jak had said or done something to annoy Shelly once again, who at the moment decided that Zeke would make better company.

Festivity's carried on without a hitch however, and the group had moved away from the narrow streets full of stalls to the shopping district, where every shop for as far as the eye could see was having some kind of promotion. After a bit of window shopping, Shelly took Amber by the hand and led her into one of the sweet shops. None of the guys where hungry by that point, Zeke and Geno had already eaten their fill, while Rift and Axel simply didn't want anything.

When Shelly left the shop alone, munching on a small bag of cookies, Axel asked. "Where's Amber?"

"Bathroom." She shrugged simply, noticeably averting her gaze when Jak turned to look in her direction. "So, what do you guys want to do now?" She said, storing the rest of her cookies in her book-bag for later. "Anything you wanted to see?"

"We could go watch Leo's performance." Zeke suggested.

"No way..." She huffed. "He's been moody all week."

"How about fireworks?" Rift said after scratching at his thin beard. "They're suppose to be having a show real soon, right Geno?"

"Yeah..." He shrugged, looking less than interested. "They'll be firing them out over the harbor, so the docks would probably have the best view."

"That sounds..." Shelly began to say something, but stopped herself and her expression turned more serious. "Wait, fireworks? Oh-no, like in town?" None of them seemed to understand where this frantic tone of voice was coming from, but Axel made the connection when he saw Amber step through the shop entrance a moment later. "When does it start?"

"Uh..." Geno glanced at a nearby clock. "Now."

A bright flash of color lit up the sky, followed a second later by a loud boom. Everyone looked skyward and cheered. Everyone except Axel that is, who moved to catch Amber as she clutched her ears and doubled over in agony. Another flash of color burst through the sky, and another explosion shook the windows. "Amber!" Axel could barely hear himself think over the cheering crowd, but it looked like she was in some serious pain. "Amber can you hear me?!"

She nodded her head slightly, but sunk to her knees as another firework went off overhead. "Dude, she ok?" Axel turned around to see the others staring down at them, a mix of confusion and concern on all their faces. Rift took a slow step forward, offering them a hand. "What's up with her?"

Before Axel could even formulate a thought, Shelly took Amber by the arm and lifted her to her feet. "We need to go somewhere quiet." She tucked herself under Amber's arm, trying to support her while they marched forward. "Geno said they're going off around the harbor, right?" The guys all nodded dumbly, and Shelly waived for them to follow her in the opposite direction. "C'mon, this way."

Making their way through the back alleys made traversing festival goers a little easier on their way away from the docks, but did nothing to stop the sound of fireworks booming overhead. The slow walk through town definitely put a damper on the mood. No mater how far away they seemed to get, Amber would recoil with each new explosion. Finally, in a large enough alleyway, Shelly decided to try something different. She dug her sketchbook out of her bag and conjured a small house with her Pict Magic. Geno, Rift, and Jak all waited patently for an explanation while Shelly tended to Amber, though Axel guessed that Shelly already knew about Amber's condition. How he'd explain this to the others though, Axel didn't even know where to begin.

Shelly finally emerged, quickly shutting the door to the small hut behind her and pointing at the doorknob. "Solid Script: Quiet." The word appeared in glowing letters across the door, and Shelly turned around with her arms behind her back. "So... Amber needs somewhere away from the noise..."

The others all exchanged a confused glance. "Is she sick?" Jak asked.

"She..." Shelly began. "Uh..."

"She doesn't like loud noises." Axel interrupted, as another bright flash lit up the sky. "They make her ears hurt. And... She kind of freezes up whenever it happens."

"Loud noises?" Rift questioned, crossing his arms in disbelief. "She lives with you: the human lightning bolt. How the hell is she bothered by loud noises?"

"I don't know, she just is. OK?" He snapped at him.

"Ok, ok..." Rift stepped back, feeling the intensity in his voice. "So... Do we just wait it out?" He looked up at the sky as another bright flash went off. "I mean, they've been going for a while now. They'll run out of rounds eventually, right?"

"Not this time..." Said Geno after a brief pause. The others turned to him for an explanation, and he sighed and scratched the back of his head. "That job I was assigned to help out with was for the fireworks show. They're using magic cells as fuel this year, not actual rockets. So, they'll probably be launching them off all night. Or until the cells run out of power."

"How long could-." Jak tried to ask when another explosion cut him off. "How long could that take?!"

Scratching his head a moment, Geno shrugged. "Until midnight. If I'm remembering it right."

"So..." Zeke began, looking at the small hut with worried eyes. "What do we do for Amber?"

Everyone looked at the hut, but no more suggestions came. They where at a loss, Axel barely knew what to do about it, and he'd been living with her for the better part of two months. How he expected the others would respond was outside his comprehension.

"Ahoy there!" A familiar voice called to them from down the street. Everyone turned to see Jon waving to them, the massive, and currently passed out, Elligr’s arm over his shoulder. "Would any of you young people mind giving this old man a hand?" He said through a strained voice. "Old uncle Wraith is quite heavy."

"What's with him?" Zeke asked as Geno and Rift dragged Elligr up into a sitting position.

"Too much to drink I'm afraid. All those added pounds, and he still handles liquor like a child." Jon said with a long groan, stretching a loud crack out of his spine. "We where headed to the guild hall to let him sleep it off. But... Well, all those added pounds, you see... I'm just an old man, after all"

As Jon chuckled to himself, Axel and Shelly shared a glance. "The guild hall..." He said slowly, waiting for Shelly's nod of agreement. "Hey dad, do you mind if we come along?"

"To the guild hall?" He questioned, scratching the side of his head. "Whatever for?"

"Amber's... Sick." It was the best excuse he could think of. The truth would just take too long to explain. "She just needs somewhere away from the fireworks to rest. And Geno said the show would be going all night."

"Oh dear..." He stroked his chin thoughtfully, spying the hut part way down the ally where Amber was taking shelter from the noise. "Well, that's unfortunate. But I'd certainly appreciate the assistance with your uncle."

He motioned for the others to follow after him, making their way to the road leading to the guild. Geno and Rift struggled to lift Elligr's weight, that is until Jak also gave them his assistance, almost lifting the bulky man single handed. Shelly went inside the hut to fetch Amber, while Axel stared blankly down the road. He felt that chill again, the one from before. It was a little early for fall temperatures, and he'd proven his storm prediction was off when he looked up to see not a single cloud in the sky. Something was up tonight, and it was beginning to make him feel unsettled.

Next Chapter – Chapter 64 - Gone