"So, you are a mage?"
"Yes. In my youth, I was even called 'Berserk Bull'. I have taken out a lot of villains in my prime." The mayor grinned.
They were currently riding a horse cart, which was heading straight to the village through the forest.
"Really? Why do they call you that?" Cana asked curiously.
The man smirked. "Well, let me tell you the story of how that time I..." Gray tuned out the mayor and glanced at Tracy, who was looking outside with a worried expression.
'Maybe I am being overcautious. She hasn't done anything suspicious till now. Looking like how a person would when thrust in such a situation.' Gray thought.
'But, the look Kazu had given me and so many inconsistencies make me believe that this is not a coincidence. This is so troublesome. I should have gone after Erza instead of Kazu.' Gray internally groaned.
If not for the situation, Cana would have probably teased him that he had a crush on the green-haired girl due to the stares he was giving.
Tracy then turned towards him, staring right in his eye.
Gray stared for a few seconds before averting his gaze.
Tracy sighed. "Guess, you aren't going to make it easy for me, will you?"
Gray furrowed his brow as he turned towards her.
BOOOM
The floor of the cart broke, and a giant snake came out, lunging at the Gray directly.
"Hammer." Gray joined both of his fists almost instantly. A hammer made of ice appeared in front of him, followed by it being swung at the snake.
Thud.
It made contact with the snake's mouth, bursting it like a balloon.
Gray hit the ground, skidding for a few seconds due to the cart's momentum.
The cart had broken into multiple parts, each going in various directions, causing a lot of dust to rise.
Gray made an ice fan, blowing the dust away.
The first thing he noticed was a bear standing at a distance, beside the knocked-out mayor.
'Berserk Bull...' Gray wanted to comment on something, maybe joke or something. But this sight made him speechless.
He frowned at the blood of the snake soaking his body.
The next thing he noticed was various animals—pigs, bears, snakes and more surrounding Tracy.
All of them had Ethernano swirling around them, marking that they were not ordinary.
Gray then looked around before his expression hardened.
Frost started forming around him as he asked in a calm yet dangerous tone.
"Where is Cana?"
---
"Found you. Luckily, I am on time." Kazu said, moments later, appearing between the monster's fist and Erza, who was lying on the ground.
He glanced back at Erza. "Why did you run off all alone? What if I was fucking late?" He barked.
Erza's painful expression turned apologetic. "... i am sorry," She muttered, looking at the ground and not meeting his eyes.
"We are going to talk about this later."
He then looked at Anne and frowned. 'So, what Tracy said was correct. Was I wrong about her?'
"So... you are the one who is a Zeref follower?... and those creatures are the ones which your magic allows you to control?" Kazu said, quickly analysing the creatures.
'What disgusting magic... Those are human body parts.' Kazu stopped his thoughts about how those would have formed. He felt his stomach churn at that line of thinking.
"Kazu...Those are villagers... I failed..." Erza said, her voice trembling. The earlier anger towards Anne was replaced by self-guilt and sorrow at what happened.
"W—what?" Kazu stuttered. He glanced at the distance—at the village.
No humans. Just blood on the ground.
He looked back at Anne, who was looking at him with a peaceful smile, which didn't look peaceful to Kazu, but rather like a smile of a devil.
"I see." Kazu lightly said, frowning.
He then calmly looked at the nearby giant, who had his other fist cocked back, aimed at Kazu.
Before he could move his arm, Kazu moved.
BOOOM
The giant shot back like a ragdoll, breaking multiple trees along with some other giants.
"Quite durable," Kazu muttered, looking at his fist.
"I was right about you. You were different from those other kids. To have no emotions towards the villagers. How interesting." Anne licked her lips, looking at Kazu with curious eyes.
Kazu didn't reply to her and looked at another flesh giant, which was moving towards him.
'Why should I care about people I never even met? Hundreds die daily. Thousands are born. It's not my problem as long as it doesn't involve me or my people.' Kazu had felt a bit of sadness and sympathy towards the villagers, but that was it.
"Erza, can you get up?" Kazu asked without looking back.
'I might not be a hero, but that's not the case for Erza... Hopefully, the master can take care of that.' Kazu hoped that this incident wouldn't affect her negatively too much.
"Give me a few seconds." She said before taking a deep breath. A determined expression appeared on her face.
Kazu looked at the giant, which was almost upon him. It's fist was cocked back.
'Lock.'
Suddenly, the giant's entire body stiffened. It tried to move its body, but it was unable to.
"I saw you use barrier magic, but that's a pretty interesting application." Anne commended. Though now her look had changed from curiosity to caution.
Kazu had put a multi-face barrier around the giant. However, its aim was not to act as a defensive measure, but rather to immobilise it.
Imagine if suddenly a wall appeared all around you. Moving will be pretty difficult unless you break the wall.
However, breaking the wall will require you to either punch it or kick it and for that, you need to stretch your hand or foot back to have maximum impact.
What if you don't get that space? What if the wall is not a cubicle but rather accommodates your human shape such that moving any of the limbs is nearly impossible?
'This is the application I thought of, along with using those barriers as footing to walk in the air. Unless you use some kind of emitting magic, it's nearly impossible to break it with physical strength as you aren't given a way to use it.' Kazu had been proud of this technique.
It didn't require as much training as his other moves and was pretty high yield compared to it, reminding him that just hard work is not alone to become stronger. You need creativity too.
Thud.
Kazu's eyes widened at what the giant did.
It somehow broke its right arm, then regrew it. The way it regrew gave the incoming fist space to gather momentum—
before slamming into the invisible barrier.
Just like that, the barrier shattered, the punch passing by Kazu's head as the latter side-stepped.
"It can regenerate?" Kazu asked with astonishment.
'What is this? A nomu? Do we need an All Might here to take care of it?' Kazu punched at the creature, sending it flying.
5 more surrounded Kazu, already attacking.
'I can only lock 1 person at a time due to the focus it takes. It will take a while to train it to reach that level.' Kazu sighed, ducking under a fist.
He rolled on the ground, dodging a stomp, and jumped up just in time to dodge a sweep.
It looked like he was dancing, not fighting.
'Though they are not humans, their patterns are human, likely being controlled by Anne to some extent. As long as they continue doing that, I could predict their movement to some extent.'
Kazu's Instinct Magic—specifically, Active instincts allowed him to predict people's movement to some extent, especially the people he has known for a long time. Though he didn't know Anne, these mindless creatures were moving in a simple manner, making it easy for him to predict.
"Erza!" Kazu shouted. He was fighting all those creatures while having a strong barrier around Erza, which was withstanding multiple strong impacts.
"I am ready," Erza said, standing up. Her body felt heavy like lead. However, due to sheer adrenaline, she was able to ignore her body's protest.
"Good. I am lowering the barrier." With that, Erza once again joined in the battle with the sword in her hand.
'I don't know how much Ethernano is getting consumed every time they regenerate, which makes me unable to stall as I might run out of it first rather than Anne. So...' Kazu twisted his head, dodging a punch before kicking the ground hard.
He disappeared between those 5's encirclement and appeared before Anne, his fist approaching her at a very rapid pace.
'I just need to eliminate the caster.' Kazu had reached the same conclusion as Erza.
'Lock.' He stopped Anne from moving her body completely. Her terrified expression told Kazu that those two grotesque creatures guarding her won't be able to stop him.
"Huh?" Kazu looked at Anne's face, which had changed from terrified to a smirk. 'I fell for it.' He thought as he put a dense barrier around his stomach just before feeling a strong impact.
Another grotesque creature, this time not a giant but rather a human-sized mass of flesh, came out of the ground and kicked Kazu when Kazu's fingers were inches away from Anne.
"Fuckkkkk", Kazu groaned, his bones rattling as he flew through the air before skidding on the ground, destroying the broken buildings, fields—anything that came in his path.
***
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