Chapter 43

Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?

Beta Reader: volfwildman

Cover Art by KegiSpringfield

(3rd Person Battle POV)

Before Lucy could even try and talk her way out of the situation she had found herself in Gajeel rushed forward with a punch. The Phantom Lord mage's fist impacted the Fairy's stomach and sent her backward against the wall in the hallway. Just as the Celestial mage was getting the stars out of her eyes the Slayer was once more on her as he swiftly grabbed her by the throat and held her against the wall.

"Ha! This is some great stress release! I got to thank you for this Blondy...wait? Blond hair, brown eyes, and some giant ass hankers. Yep, you're Lucy Heartfilla ain'tcha?" Gajeel took a moment to think about his next course of action. If this was the girl that his guild had the job to return to her asshole of a dad then he couldn't hurt her too bad.

Just as Gajeel was thinking all this Lucy willed herself through the pain and reached her hand down to her keys. After quickly finding the right one she channeled her magic and choked out her spell.

"Open Gate of the Bull: Taurus"

With his opponent's words and a flash of light on his right, Gajeel eyes widened just in time for him to be sent flying from a heavily muscled fist. As Lucy was released and was once more on her feet she looked towards the Spirit she had summoned. There stood Taurus, a large and very well built anthro black and white bull. His only clothing was some speedos with a belt above it, a belt strapped diagonally around his chest, a collar that had a cowbell on it, and some white wrappings around his forearms. Along with all of that he held in one of his hands a large double-sided ax.

Taurus flashed Lucy a smile and a wink before turning to glare at Gajeel who was standing out of the little crater that he had made when he had hit the wall. "How dare you harm Lucy's rockin bode!"

With that shout, Taurus charged forward and rammed into Gajeel who had crossed his arms and started to turn part of his skin into iron scales. Near instantly Gajeel hit the wall which caved in and Slayer found himself being carried across a new room as the spirit continued his charge. The new room was a large circular room that was often used as a sparring room when Phantom Lord still used the headquarters. With a growl, the Phantom channeled his mage into his right leg and through clenched teeth cast his spell

"Iron Dragon's Club"

Gajeel's right leg turned into an iron club that extended into the ground and forced Taurus to stop. Swiftly the club retracted and allowed the Slayer to drop on the ground and he pivoted around on his left leg and promptly roundhouse kicked the spirit away with a brutal kick from the iron club which turned back into a leg.

Gajeel grinned and let out a little chuckle as he started to walk towards the recovering cow summon who had carved a small trail on the floor. But after a few steps, he found a whip wrapped around his throat and started to squeeze. Lucy had taken the moment between the two's fight to position herself behind the Slayer and was trying her best to choke said mage out like he last few mages she had fought.

The Iron Dragon Slayer frowned for a second as his airways were cut off before he was once more grinning as the area around his neck turned into iron scales which Lucy found to be much harder to choke then regular skin. With a jerk forward Gajeel forced the Celestial age to let go of her whip with one of her hands and he swiftly turned around and faced his opponent.

Lucy, in turn, took a step back with wide eyes as she flicked her wrist and sent the tail end of her whip flying towards the Slayer. Gajeel responded by using his iron scaled forearm to block the strike then promptly pulled said arm back and allowed his grin to widened as he channeled some of his mage into said arm. He was about to let out a taunt before casting his spell but someone else had other ideas.

Before Gajeel knew it, he found himself sent flying into the higher portion of the circular wall in the room. This was because Taurus had recovered while his summoner attacked the Slayer and had decided to play baseball with his ax and homeruned the Phantom Lord mage.

Gajeel's body fell to the ground after impacting the wall but just as he stood up Taurus activated an ability of his. Soon his strength turned into a more metaphysical substance that channeled into his ax then he promptly used both of his arms to swing down onto the ground and unleashed his attack, "Rampage".

A powerful shockwave was produced from the ax and swiftly traveled along the ground towards Gajeel. The Slayer in question shook the confusion out of his head in time to see the rippling shockwave traveling ever closer to him. With reflexes honed after years of being a mage, the Phantom Lord mage crossed his arms and activated a spell to defend himself.

"Iron Dragon's Scales"

Gajeel's entire body blurred before every last bit of it was covered in hardened iron scales. It was similar to the times he converted his body to scales before but now they covered his entire body rather than just a portion of it and soon both Lucy and Taurus would find that these scales were even tougher as well.

The shockwave hit Gajeel full force and even caused him to be pushed back against the wall as Taurus's attack exploded into concussive force and dust. Both Lucy and her Spirit stood near each other as they waited on the outcome of the attack.

They didn't wait long.

"Iron Dragon's Claw"

The dust whipped around as a claw of iron shot forth and hit Taurus. The four claws that made up the appendage gripped around the human bull before the iron club that was attached to the claws retracted and pulled the summon towards a newly revealed and grinning Gajeel. Once the claws were decently close the Slayer whipped them around and slammed the Bull into the wall before retracting him the rest of the way.

At the last second before the claws were fully retracted Gajeel released his grip and allowed Taurus to fly freely toward him. Well freely until the Iron Dragon Slayer used his scaley fist to punch the Spirit into the ground.

Despite the harsh punishment that Taurus had taken he was a golden key for a reason and just as Gajeel was about to bring his iron claw arm down on the Bull the summon jumped up with a roar and with as much power had he could muster with one arm swung his ax towards the Phantom Lord Mage's face.

The results weren't what Taurus expected.

Instead of slamming into Gajeel's face and sending him flying, the ax stopped dead. What surprised Taurus, even more, was the fact that his ax had been stopped by the Iron Slayer opening his mouth and biting down on the metal of the weapon and stopping all the momentum behind it. There was a moment of silence between the two before it was broken with a loud crunch as the mage bit off a large part of the ax and swallowed it.

Taurus stood stunned at seeing his prized weapon being taken a bite out of before rage overtook him and he pulled back his ax and shouted. "How dare you take a bite out of my precious ax! That's going to take so long to fix you scaley bastard!"

As Taurus finished his shouting he pulled his fist back and then threw a mighty punch toward Gajeel who took it head-on. The result was the Slayer being pushed back a few inches before stopping and with a wide grin, he dismissed his claw and gave the Bullman a punch of his own.

Lucy watched from the side with clenched teeth as Gajeel and Taurus started trading punch after punch. The Celestial mage was confident in her summon but even she could tell that her Spirit was on the losing side of this fight. The Slayer's iron scales provide an amazing defense that the Bullman's punches weren't as effective while said Slayer was also dishing devastating punches of his own.

Lucy knew that there was little she could do physically here, she doubted her whip would do much on its own. She couldn't summon one of the other golden Spirits either. Celestial magic worked by having the caster pour a large amount of magic into the key to open a gate for the Spirit to cross through and pumping magic into the Spirit to keep it here. While Lucy had a decent amount of magic and a close Bond with her magic as well she couldn't deal with the strain of having two golden Spirits open at once.

But a golden key and a silver key was a different story.

Lucy found herself thanking Bishop as she grabbed a sliver key from her key ring. After the S-rank job incident, the blond mage had gone on a few jobs with her team. During one of these jobs, she and the rest of them had checked out a magic shop out of boredom. Lucy at first wasn't going to buy anything upon seeing they had no golden keys but Bishop commented on how she should get a few combat focus silver keys to fight with.

Lucy at first just waved off the comment until Bishop said that while silver keys weren't as strong as golden ones they took up a decent amount less magic to active and hold. Not to mention that she wouldn't always need a golden key and using one would simply be a waste of magic. The Celestial mage had been on the fence until both Gray and Erza agreed with their big brother and Lucy caved in and bought a few silver keys with Erza offering to pay part of the price for them.

Lucy had thought it a waste of jewels. Well, a waste until now.

"Open Gate of the Wolf: Lupus"

In a flash of silver light, a new Spirit was summoned. Before Lucy stood a bipedal wolfman with dark grey fur. He only had some ripped up blue jeans on for clothing but the lack of clothing showed off his lean but muscular body that was perfectly built for speed. Lupus turns to his summoner and lets out a wolf whistle at her body before speaking.

"About time you summon me, Luce. I was starting to think that you were scared of my large fangs or sharp claws." Lupus gave a wolfy grin to his summoner who simply let out a tired sigh before pointing towards the ongoing fight between Taurus and Gajeel, a fight that it was quickly becoming apparent that the Bullman would lose if no one intervened.

At his summoner's pointing Lupus turned to see his fellow Spirit take a powerful punch to the jaw which caused him to stumble back a bit while grabbing said jaw. The Wolfman's eyes narrowed as he let out a growl, "Hey you scaley freak! No one hurts my best friend like that!"

With that shout Lupus threw himself forward and started to twist his body as it flew through the air. Soon the twisting rapidly grew into an insanely fast rotation that could only be described as a tornado of wind and claws formed and shot towards Gajeel. The attack slammed into a stunned Slayer as the tornado drilled into his chest and despite his iron scale small cuts soon started to find themselves carved into his body. Eventually, the summon ended his attack by shifting in the air and planting his feet on the Phantom Lord mage with a kick and sending him crashing into a nearby wall.

The kick allowed Lupus to flip into the air and land beside a bruised but standing Taurus. The two Spirits looked at each other before grinning and fist-bumping. Despite one being a cow and the other being a wolf, the two were best friends. This was mainly due to one major reason.

Both of them were huge perverts.

Both had bonded with each other by admiring the female bodies of other Spirits and soon the two were the best of friends. Lupus though was more reserved in his perversions, mainly for two reasons. The first was because he went a bit too far one time with a certain sheep and found himself beat into the ground by a certain lion after which he promised to cut back on his 'hobby'. The second was because he found a girl that had completely captured his heart and preferred to save most of his perversion for his she-wolf, even if said she-wolf violently denied all his advances.

The two summons were about to exchange some words when the two heard a growl and turn to see a standing and angry Gajeel. The two glanced at each other before grinning and nodding, they weren't strangers to fighting together.

As Gajeel charged the two Lupus was the first to react. He quickly threw himself into a slashing tornado that twisted through the air and attacked the Slayer from behind. Said Slayer turning just in time to bring up his arms and defend against the swirling force of wind and claws. While the Phantom Lord Mage put up a great defense to the Wolfman's attack he has forgotten about the other summon. At least he had forgotten about the summon until Taurus slammed the flat side of his damaged ax into the Mage's back.

Gajeel let out a small yell of pain as the attack from Taurus but the main point of the strike was to get the Mage off his feet. Without his feet digging into the ground the Slayer found himself sailing through the air as Lupus's tornado traveled all around the room with said Slayer on its tip.

The S-class Mage would be crashed into the walls of the room over and over again as the tornado forced him to crave outlines with his iron body. This all ended when the Spirit stopped his rotation and like last time shifted mid-air and kicked his opponent away. Right toward Taurus who swung the undamaged part of his ax and hit the Mage into the wall which promptly exploded into debris and dust.

The two Spirit friends as they high fived each other near certain that their foe was down after the devastating combo. Lucy herself let out a smile as she made her way to her Spirits. Sadly this little victory did not last.

"Iron Dragon's Roar"

Lucy and her summons' eyes widened as the dust all but disappeared as a tornado-like beam of pure iron magic rocked through it and towards the Celestial mage. At the last second, before the spell hit, Taurus shoved his summoner out of the way and the attack hit the Bull Spirit. The roar kept pushing forward and slammed the summon into the wall on the other side of the room with a loud crash before exploding into iron shards and concussive force.

Taurus bearly stood against the wall after the attack was done. His body was severely damaged from the attack with several shards of iron sticking out of his torso and combined with all the punishment he had taken over the course of the fight he could barely keep himself conscious. With a sigh, the Bull looked towards Lucy with a sad expression before speaking.

"Sorry, Lucy." He whispered out before his body faded into golden light and he was sent back to his home. Lucy stared in horror at where her friend had been as Lupus let out an enraged howl. The Wolfman once more threw himself into a tornado and launched himself right out the revealed Gajeel. Unfortunately for the silver Spirit, the Phantom Lord Mage was ready for the attack and just as the tornado was about to hit him the mage struck.

"Iron Dragon's Club"

Gajeel swung his arm into an arc as it transformed into a club of iron and hit Lupus. Even in his slashing tornado, the Wolfman had no protection against the attack and was sent flying into the wall next to the Slayer. As the summon got up his injuries revealed the nature of the Spirit. Someone who was speedy and could attack hard but wasn't a tank by any means.

Lucy was well aware of this as she saw the damage done to Lupus just from one hit. She fumbled with her key ring as she thought of what Spirit to summon next. Sadly for her, the summoning and usage of Taurus and Lupus had drained her enough that she did have the mage to open a gate for a golden key.

Luckily though she had enough for a silver key.

"Open Gate of the Huntress: Orion"

In a flash of silver light, another new Spirit was summoned. Despite the male-sounding name, this Spirit was clearly female. This was very obvious from the very revealing clothing that she was wearing. Little more than some chest then a bikini like two-piece that was made from some kind of animal fur. Other than that she had a large hunting bow in her hands with a quiverful of arrows on her back and a brown headband with a red feather wrapped around her head just under her very short light brown hair.

Orion gave Lucy a slight bow," Hello Lady Lucy I Orion the Huntress am at your-." The Spirit paused as she heard a howl from behind her. Upon turning around she was met with the sight of Gajeel landing a sucker punch onto Lupus' face after the Wolfman tried to land a speedy slash on him. All sense of poise and grace left the Huntress as her mouth craved itself into a snarl onto her face as she reached for an arrow.

"Hey," Orion shouted as she pulled the arrow back along her bow, "No one hurts that damn Mutt but me!" The arrow was released and was sent flying toward Gajeel who didn't pay it much mind. When the arrow made contact the Slayer had thought it would balance off his iron scales. Instead, the arrow impacted with the force of a powerful punch and sent the Phantom Lord mage flying back.

Lupus sighed as he rubbed his snout then walked towards his fellow silver key Spirit. The man let out a wolf whistle and he eyes the female Spirit up and down. This was the she-wolf that had captured his heart. "Hey there babe, great timing. How about after this fight we head out and hunt some dinner for the two of us?"

Orion didn't even look at her fellow Spirit as she eyed the recovering Gajeel. "Shut it Mutt. I refused the first thousand times and I'll do it the next thousand times. I only helped because I'm the only one allowed to hurt you."

Despite the rejection Lupus just gave her a wolfish grin, "Ya ya I know how much of a sadist you are. Luckily you're sexy enough that I'll gladly take what you give. You're also lucky I love the tsundere type."

Orion kept looking toward Gajeel even as a blush overcame her face and she gritted her teeth while muttering idiot several times at Lupus and grabbing three arrows from her quiver. The Wolfman simply chuckled and looked over the Huntress' body one more time before following her example and faced his opponent.

Gajeel was not having a good day. He still hadn't completely recovered from his fight he had this morning with the Summer and Winter Fairies even after a healthy amount of iron. And now he was taking knock after knock from these stupid Spirits. He was going to need some more iron after this was over but first, he needed to end this fight. With that thought in mind, he channeled magic into his fists, hardening the scales even more, and rushing towards the Huntress.

Unfortunately for him, Orion was ready for the attack.

"Tri-Piercing Arrows"

The three arrows that Orion had drawn were enveloped in a blue glow before she released them. The arrows took on a life of their own once released as they zig-zagged through the air as they made their way to Gajeel. The Slayer paused in his charge and using his honed reflexes was able to punch one of the arrows out of the air. Sadly for the Mage that left him open for the other two arrows to curve around and hit him on both of his sides. The Slayer gritted his teeth in pain as he felt the projectiles pierce through his scales and dig into his sides.

Before Gajeel could pay Orion back for the attack Lupus literally jumped into action. Once more a slashing tornado rammed into Gajeel who was able to hold his ground against the summon. Just as Mage was about to hit the Wolfman to the side the tornado turned and flew off before making a quick u-turn and slamming into the Phantom Lord Mage once more before repeating the process.

While Lupus was resorting to hit and run tactics Orion was using the time to channel her power into a single drawn arrow. Said arrow was crackling with bright red energy as it readied to destroy whatever it's target was. It would soon get its wish as one of the Wolfman's attacks was just a tab too slow to dodge a harsh kick from Gajeel which sent the Spirit flying off to the side.

"Destruction Arrow"

The red arrow that Orion had been charging was released with a loud thunder-like sound filling the air as it slammed into Gajeel and exploded into a mess of fire and red lightning which sent the Mage crashing along the ground once more into a wall where some of the wall collapsed and rumble covered him.

Lupus whistled as he limped over to his fellow silver key. "Great shot babe, really know how to bring the pain doncha. Why don't we head out and I can show ya my own explosive finish."

Orion once more gritted her teeth and tried to vanish the red on her face but before she could respond a loud roar filled the room. In an explosion of debris and dust, Gajeel emerged from beneath the pile of stone that had laid on him. Cuts and dents littered his form as he glared at the ones responsible for said injuries as he channeled a large amount of magic into his right arm.

"Iron Dragon's Sword"

In a flash, Gajeel's right hand down to his elbow turned into a chainsaw-like sword. The chainsaw comparison became a lot more visible and audible when the razors along the blade started to rapidly move along the blade's edge and a horrid mechanical whirring noise filled the air. But the Slayer was far from done.

"Iron Dragon's Club"

Instead of one of Gajeel's arms transforming this time it was his right leg. Said club-leg swiftly started to extend and rapidly close the distance between the Slayer and Orion who's eyes widened in horror at the fast-approaching saw-sword. But at the last second before the weapon made contact she was pushed away by Lupus who took the entire attack as the saw ripped into his chest. Blood flew through the air and the Wolfman's chest was sliced away like butter before the whirling blade.

After a few seconds, Gajeel pulled back with a smile as he dismissed both his club-leg and sword-arm. Lupus stumbled back as he looked toward a shocked Orion. The Wolfman man gave her one last wolfish grin before winking as he fell backward and faded away in sparkles of silver.

Orion was not happy.

"Impact Arrow"

Within a span of a second Orion grabbed an arrow, charged it with her power, drew it back along her bow, and released the thing right into Gajeel's chest. The arrow exploded into a shockwave of white energy as it sent the Slayer flying across the room. That said it did little to keep the Mage down as he was back on his feet within a second and rushing his opponent's last summon. The Huntress, in turn, pulled five arrows from her quiver and pulled them along her bow as blue energy surrounded each one of them.

"Penta-Piercing Arrow"

Like with the three arrows before, each of the five projectiles flew through the as they twisted and turned. Gajeel though didn't care as he rushed forward, not even when the arrows found their marks as they embedded themselves into several places along his body. The Slayer simply powered through the pain and jump-tackled Orion to the ground.

Taking a second to make sure the Spirit was securely under him Gajeel started to wail on her. Punch after punch landed on Orion who threw her bow to the side as she tried her best to use her arms to block the attacks but this had little effect as bruise after bruise found it's way somewhere on her body.

Eventually, just as Gajeel was about to land a devastating punch to Orion head he paused as he felt some light hits to his back. Upon turning his head he saw Lucy giving him a determined glare with her whip ready to strike him again. The blond Mage growled out some words, "Get off of her you Iron Freak!"

Gajeel looked down to see that the Spirit was just barely conscious, so with a shrug, he got up and turned to Celestial Mage. Orion mouthed out a thank you to Lucy before she lost the last bit of control and like the two summons before her faded away. The Slayer didn't pay much mind to that as he grinned and slowly advanced onto his prey.

Lucy's eyes widened as she started to back up while using her whip to slash at Gajeel. This was rather ineffective though as the Slayer barely felt any of the hits and soon the Blond Mage gasped when she felt the wall on her back. She didn't have enough magic left to summon even a minor sliver key and her only option now was to run away. However, before she could move away the Phantom Lord Mage burst forward and landed a harsh punch on her stomach.

Lucy bent over as she felt the breath leave her but before she could recover Gajeel grabbed her by the throat, lifted her up into the air, and slammed her into the wall. Despite the punishment, she was taking the Fairy Tail Mage forced herself to stay conscious as she glared at the Phantom Lord Mage.

Soon Gajeel started to tighten his grip on Lucy's neck and she found her airflow being cut off as she choked on both the air and the words she was slowly speaking out as unconsciousness started to claim her. "No...I can't...go back to...him! I...won't be...lock away again! I...will be a mage...I will be..free..."

That was the last Lucy could say before she went limp in Gajeel grip. Once unconscious the Slayer lessened his grip and stared at his beaten opponent. Has much as he hated to admit it, the girl had earned his respect. He had faced a few Celestial Mages in his day and all of them had just stayed in the background shouting orders. But this girl had not just once but twice physically helped her summons in battle.

Her last words also affected Gajeel more than he'd like to say. The Slayer could truly understand wanting to be a mage...wanting to be free. The girl in his grip had fully earned his respect. Which gave him a bitter taste in his mouth when he thought of the fact he was going to send her back to a gilded cage.

If it had been a small-time job he would have let her go and simply said she got lucky and got away from him. But Jose had stressed the importance of capturing this girl. Defeating Fairy Tail would put them back to being number one but the money that Lucy's father was going to give them would propel Phantom Lord to new heights.

"Sorry, Blondy. I wish I could let you stay free but I got my guild and friends to think about. For what it's worth I am really sorry about this." With that said Gajeel threw Lucy onto his shoulder and made his way to a safe place to hold her and give him some iron to recover.

About twenty minutes later Natsu and Gray were running along a hallway when they came across the hole that led into the room where Lucy and Gajeel had battled. Both were amazed at the destruction that was littered all around the room.

Gray was about to speak up when he noticed Natsu sniff the air with a concentrated look on his face. Eventually, he had a grim but determined look on his face as he turned to his brother. "Lucy was here...along with Gajeel."

The implication did not need to be vocalized had Gray adopted the same grim but determined look on his face before speaking. "First Bishop...now Lucy. I hope you can sniff him out Bro because I really want to teach that Iron Bastard a lesson.

The bloodthirsty smile on Natsu's face gave Gray the answer.

AN: First off I'd like to thank you all for the support after I needed an extra week for this chapter. Now for the chapter, Lucy vs. Gajeel. This wasn't originally planned when I thought out the arc but when I decided to have Lucy go with the assault group rather than stay back with the defense. Figured it would be a good chance to show off how different Lucy is now because of Bishop. Still lost to Gajeel because well...he's an S-class mage. It was close though, I've tried to make all the fights close to give Phantom Lord more of the strength that they were said to have in the show. Even with the fights that Phantom Lord won they had to work for them, besides Sol vs. Mira but I'd like to think the earthly gentleman put up a valiant fight.

For those of you who read my story in desktop mode, I'm sure you've noticed that I've finally gotten an official cover for it. It was made by the same guy that did my profile cover KegiSpringfield. Great artist, he's currently doing commissions right now and he's got some great prices for anyone who's interested. I'd highly recommended him.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. This weekly shout out goes to Killerpickle for his great review and criticisms. Thanks, man for the words and I'm glad you enjoy my story.

Soooooo...to busy to leave reviews? Weeeeelll now you're stuck at home sooooooooooo. (Slides Review Buttin into View).

Have a great day.

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