'Is he angry? Didn't think I would live to see the day.' This was the first time Cana looked at Kazu being genuinely angry. It reminded her of the looks some of the Onee-san's gave to their boyfriends in Magnolia.
"Anyway, we have two at the moment. Cana and Erza will hold onto it. I will tell you how you guys will use it in a bit." Kazu tossed the two identical rocks to both before bringing up 4 identical pages. He gave everyone one.
"This is used for healing. Though the effects are not too prominent, so don't go around losing any of your limbs or getting major injuries to any of the organs."
Gray deadpanned. "I don't think anybody would be getting that much damage... right?"
Kazu didn't reply. He lifted the last equipment, which was in the form of a pendant.
"This..."
---
Some distance away from the group stood Anne and her minions.
"Almost there," Anne muttered, looking around. She was around 1 hour away from the village.
Currently, she was sitting on a huge dog-like creature, which was moving while being surrounded by multiple giants.
The moon peeked from between the clouds. Wind blew through the silent forest as they marched.
'Normally, I would have preferred everyone to have a more locomotive form, but here is still a chance to get ambushed.' Anne was cautious by nature. Without caution, she wouldn't have survived this long.
She looked at the several leaves, branches on the ground. 'Guess, somebody was roughhousing here or something.' She thought. It wasn't uncommon to find such obvious signs since magical beasts were present. Even if they weren't considered, normal animals could also produce such a result.
Suddenly, every creature, along with the hound Anne was sitting on, stopped. Anne's eyes widened as she felt a familiar feeling of being unable to move her body.
'This is that kid's magic! Did he escape? He even got the hidden ones in the ground!' Anne thought with panic as her body was locked on the same spot.
It would take around 2 seconds to break the barrier by her hounds, which felt too long, as the next instant, icy wind flowed through the battlefield.
'This is a planned trap.' Anne thought, looking at the multiple cards on the ground.
The magic circles shimmered, and in less than one second and every creature alike started getting encased in ice.
CRACK
Anne broke the invisible barrier surrounding her and jumped away, moments before she got encased in ice.
'This is not that smart kid's magic. If he could immobilise multiple members of my army, he would have done so before, which means it's highly likely that those other two kids are involved. Does that mean Tracy failed?' Worry crossed her face as she thought of her daughter.
Whoosh
Anne turned her attention back to the forest as multiple swords appeared from the sky, heading towards all the monsters, and cutting them up.
"No!" Anne watched in horror as her entire army got decimated in a matter of moments.
Ice magic was the natural enemy of her magic, which focused on biological aspects. It was possible to permanently kill the creatures if they remained frozen while being cut.
"These creatures are creepy. I thought I was watching a horror film or something." A black-haired boy jumped down from a tree before walking towards her with a disgusted face.
'They look amalgamation of humans. Did she really make them directly with her magic?'
"YOU!" Veins popped on Anne's beautiful face as she looked at Gray with clenched fists.
"Do you fucking know how much time I spent getting those pawns?"
Gray's disgusted expression morphed into a smirk. "I don't, but I don't need to. Seeing your expression, I feel pretty satisfied."
Before Anne could retort, she felt her body stop.
"Got you." She heard the familiar boy's voice as something sharp pierced her chest.
Blood splattered on the ground as Anne found herself feeling weak.
She slowly turned her head back. Behind her was none other than Kazu, holding a knife that was plunged into her chest.
"So... you escaped."
"Indeed, I did. Though seeing you like this, I didn't expect it to be this easy." Kazu taunted.
Anne frowned. "Well, whatever. I am too angry at you guys to keep you alive. You would be lucky if you could keep your limbs." Before even her statement got finished, one point of Anne's spine grew, heading directly at Kazu's chest.
Kazu's smirk was still on his lips when Anne's spine shot toward him—too fast. Pain bloomed before he even realised he'd dropped the knife.
One second, he was taunting Anne while his knife was plunged into her chest, and the next second, something pierced his left lung along with intense pain.
"Good instincts you have got." Kazu heard as he finally deployed a barrier before jumping back.
Anne's spine returned to normal along with her chest as she turned back.
"You can transform your body, too?" Kazu asked weakly as he dropped to the ground on his knees.
Anne looked at him in disdain. "You can't live for this long if you are only a one-trick pony. It's a shame that I hit your vitals. I wanted to break you completely this time."
The light in Kazu's eyes dimmed as he opened his mouth.
'Wait... Isn't it too fast for him to die? He should have had nearly half a minute left? Or is that due to him being a kid?' Seeing Kazu dying quickly made Anne confused.
Whoosh
A silent, almost harmless sound passed through the clearing
Anne didn't have time to react.
Her instincts screamed—DEATH.
Before she could move, pressurised wind hit her from the side.
BOOOM
By the time sound came, she was already gone.
Kazu was blown away due to the side wind currents generated by that attack.
'Fuck. She was not kidding about that move. I thought she was exaggerating with the effects. I would be dead if I got hit by it point-blank, as I won't be able to conjure my strongest barrier that fast. Guess, using that full Ethernano reserve artefact boosted that spell by a lot.'
Kazu had made an invisible tunnel with his barrier magic such that the wind pressure generated by Cana gets more concentrated in one direction rather than diverging in many. That, along with the fact that she had used all the Ethernano in that artefact, made a deadly attack.
He looked at the dust rising from the ground while using the healing artefact to heal his lungs.
There was only one artefact that could heal that—the pendant, and Kazu had decided to take it as he anticipated something like this happening.
'I saw her getting hit. Did we get her or not?'
Gray conjured an ice-fan, blowing away the dust.
Suddenly, he felt a wet hand on his neck.
"Don't move or you will die." His heart almost stopped. Fear enveloped him.
"GRAY!" Cana shouted.
All three of them looked at Gray. Behind him was Anne, whose right side was gone. She was only alive due to the nature of her magic.
"Fuck." Kazu muttered, his expression concerned.
'I almost died. If not for my instincts, I wouldn't have been able to activate that artefact.' Anne had used a rare magical equipment to teleport at a distance just moments before it almost hit her.
However, despite her instincts, she still lost her half side. Normally, this would have been a death sentence to anybody other than Anne.
Anne looked at Gray's neck. 'I need to get some human flesh to recover. Luckily, I was able to get him. Just need 3 seconds to take it, though it would be annoying if anybody of the other kids attack me during my recovery, I am confident in escaping from anyone other than the boy here.
Luckily, he seems to be pretty emotional, so he would likely break down. But if he doesn't... I need to take a risk.' Anne internally made her resolve.
To survive, she is willing to do it as she has nothing else to lose.
"It's futile—"
"If you move, you are going to die." An icy chill surrounded Anne.
She instantly stopped flowing her Ethernano, aborting the spell almost instantly and paused every muscle in her body.
She looked down and found a big magic circle, ready to activate at any moment's notice.
'This madman!' "Have you lost your mind? Do you want to die with me?" Anne frowned.
She could feel that if she went with her spell, then Gray would activate his spell too. At this range, it would be almost impossible for her to dodge.
"I don't care. I am not going to let you use me as a hostage." Gray's voice was resolute.
***
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