"Please. Let's end this," Juvia said, voice steady but not weak. "Despite what I said earlier… I don't want to fight you."
"Oh?" Gajeel tilted his head slightly.
Then, a battle-hungry grin stretched across his face. "That's fine."
The hallway groaned.
It wasn't a simple sound. But a deep, tortured shriek of stone being violated from the inside.
Metal screamed as thick support beams ripped themselves free from the walls. Pipes burst outward, stone fracturing around them as if the building itself were being flayed open.
Bolts snapped. Concrete split. Steel twisted violently through the air and began orbiting Gajeel like predatory satellites.
Juvia's eyes widened despite herself. '…I thought he only turned his body into iron.'
'can he command all the metal?'
Gajeel rolled his shoulders, arms spreading slightly as the steel hovered at his flanks.
"Let's see what's stronger," he said, voice low and eager. "My iron and metal…"
"Or your water."
A cold silver-gray aura poured from his body.
It didn't flare wildly, it was compressed. Like the air before a collapsing structure.
"So that's your magical aura…"
"Yeah," Gajeel replied, flexing his fingers. The aura flowed down his arm like liquid mercury and condensed around his fist.
"When a Mage's power overflows, it leaks out as pressure. The denser the magic…the heavier it feels."
His knuckles darkened as iron overtook them.
"But for me it is even more true."
The battle-hungry grin sharpened. "Because there is no one aura who's stronger!"
He drove his fist into the ground.
The sound wasn't a "boom."
It was a concussive metallic detonation — like a cathedral bell forged from iron being struck by a cannon.
The floor imploded.
Cracks spider-webbed outward in violent patterns. The impact compressed air so violently that it burst outward in a spiraling shockwave, ripping tiles free and blasting dust, stone, and powdered debris into the corridor in a suffocating storm.
The hallway vanished beneath a roaring cloud of pulverized ruin.
Juvia didn't just tense, her pupils narrowed to needles. 'Smoke…? He shattered the ground just to blind me.'
Smoke and dust swallowed everything.
'But he can't see either… Can he?'
Her thoughts flickered back.
'That aura around his fist… was that reinforcement? Did he just amplify his physical strength with magic?'
The dust shifted. Not randomly but deliberately. It was a distortion in the haze.
Too controlled to be a coincidence. Something tore through the smoke.
A compressed chunk of metal spinning like a bullet, ripping through the air toward her face.
With no hesitation whatsoever, her head dissolved.
The projectile ripped through liquid, scattering her face into an explosive spray of water that splashed across the fractured floor.
Before gravity could reclaim it, another shape erupted from the smoke.
Not a projectile this time but a full iron fist.
It shot forward with savage precision, aiming straight for her sternum.
Her torso liquefied an instant before impact.
The metal arm punched through her center mass, bursting through in a violent plume of water before continuing forward and vanishing into the dust cloud beyond.
Water rained down in heavy droplets.
The corridor echoed with the fading hum of vibrating steel.
Then, the droplets trembled.
They didn't simply fall but responded.
Each bead of water quivered, lifted, and began drifting upward, defying gravity as they spiraled together midair.
Reforming. Rebuilding.
Juvia's body reconstructed itself in layers until she stood whole once more, water cascading off her shoulders.
Her breathing was steady and focused. "You still don't understand," she said calmly, wiping a strand of wet hair from her face.
"As long as I become water…"
Her eyes locked forward into the smoke.
"…your attacks won't touch me."
The dust slowly began to settle.
"You can't break through water with brute force, Gajeel."
Closing her eyes, Juvia brought her hands to her chest, fingers lightly interlaced.
'My magic draws moisture from the air… from plants… from the breath between walls.'
'I don't create water, I gather it.'
The air shifted.
Humidity vanished as if inhaled by an unseen lung. The corridor dried in an instant, dust settling, stone losing its damp sheen.
Wisps of vapor spiraled inward, drawn toward her palm in tightening currents.
Above her hand, a clear perfect sphere formed.
'It looks like I make water from nothing… but I'm only harvesting what's already here.'
In other words she was concentrating it.
She lifted her hand. At first, the sphere seemed harmless.
Then it began to shrink.
Slowly and deliberately.
Its diameter decreased while its density increased. The surface tightened, growing glassy. Tremors rippled across it as layer after layer of liquid was forced inward, pressure stacking violently at its core.
The air around it warped faintly.
'More.'
Her brow furrowed.
'Compress it further. Condense it to its limit.'
The sphere became marble-sized.
Then smaller and heavier. So heavy the space beneath it seemed to bend.
Her eyes opened.
"And now…"
She released control.
The sphere did not explode with flame.
It did not roar. It unfolded.
Water expanded with violent inevitability, the compressed mass snapping back to its natural volume in an instant.
"Skywater Magic—"
The release became a tidal detonation.
"Sky Exorcism!"
A circular blast of water erupted outward, a collapsing tide unleashed in every direction. The hallway was swallowed whole as walls were hammered by crushing waves.
The fractured floor disappeared beneath a roaring surge. Steel groaned as stone shuddered.
Mist saturated the air.
Water crashed into itself, rebounding, multiplying the chaos as waves collided and rebounded again.
The smoke, the dust was gone.
Erased beneath the flood.
Within moments, the corridor had become a churning basin of water.
And above it, Juvia stood lightly atop the surface, as if gravity had politely stepped aside.
Her eyes scanned the flooded ruin.
'Where is he?'
She turned her head slowly.
'Did he get swept away?'
"Not bad, little one."
An amused voice drifted across the water.
Juvia's gaze snapped upward.
There, balanced atop a curved lattice of metal that had risen from the wall like a forged perch, stood Gajeel.
He wore a sleeveless, light-toned top hanging loosely over his torso. A thick, pale scarf wrapped around his neck and fell over one shoulder like a mantle, framing him against the mist-heavy air. His exposed arms bore dark, flame-like markings that curled upward from his forearms.
His trousers flared slightly at the bottom, bold yellow-gold stripes cutting down the fabric, red flame motifs licking across the thighs.
"I'll give you credit," he said, a thin, cutting grin tugging at his mouth. "An omnidirectional attack like that was clever."
Water dripped from the metal beneath him.
"You cleared the smoke, Taking away my advantage."
His eyes narrowed.
"And you tried to drown me in the same move."
A short huff of laughter.
"Smart."
He tilted his head, "Solid effort."
Juvia's face soured immediately.
"Don't call me little one." She held up both hands, fingers spread wide. "I'm eight!"
Gajeel rolled his eyes.
"Should that impress me?"
But inwardly, his thoughts were quite different.
'She's younger than me…'
His gaze sharpened.
'And her talent might exceed mine.'
He remembered Metalicana's words.
''According to what Metalicana said, when a person refines their magic enough, they can turn into their element.'
His stare hardened into something analytical.
''I guess that means she has a water attribute. But is it really water?'
He replayed the earlier exchanges. The way she dissolved before impact. ''Maybe her magic is just a variation of water magic.'
'Assuming that the case, that would mean
Her magic gives her the illusion that she is creating water…'
Meanwhile, Juvia studied him just as closely.
'His physical strength is already monstrous…
And he reinforces it with magic.'
She then recalled the smoke screen from earlier. 'And he is no fool when it comes to fighting.'
Her expression tightened.
The two stared across the flooded corridor.
'Juvia is… 'Gajeel thought.
'This kid is… 'Juvia thought.
Their conclusions landed at the same time.
'She's a child prodigy!'
'He's a monster in a child's body!'
"That said—"
A predatory grin slowly carved its way across Gajeel's face, sharp and feral.
"There's no way I'm losing."
Across from him, Juvia's expression didn't change.
Her gaze turned still. Focused and piercing.
"Even so… I cannot lose." Her voice was calm, but something heavy sat beneath it. "Not until I hunt down every member of that clan."
The water around her feet rippled.
She lifted one hand.
Tiny droplets gathered at her fingertips, trembling in midair as if synced to her pulse. They quivered, then responded.
With the slightest extension of her fingers, the droplets stretched.
They had thinned and sharpened, curving into crescent shapes.
Scythe-like blades of pressurized water formed one by one, their edges so refined they shimmered like polished glass.
A faint hum filled the corridor as pressure compressed within them, the liquid vibrating at lethal density.
Gajeel moved first.
He leaned forward, and the metallic structure beneath his feet bent to his will, launching through the air like a guided projectile.
'If I fight her at range she'll have the advantage.' he thought, wind tearing past his face. 'Range is her game.'
"Water Slicer."
The blades fired.
Not wildly or not recklessly.
They carved forward in clean, surgical arcs.
"In that case…"
Gajeel twisted midair. His body rotated smoothly, the first blade grazing past his shoulder close enough to kiss fabric. The second passed under his arm.
Behind him, the wall split open. Stone parted with a hiss, a deep crescent gash etched into it like the mark of a guillotine.
"I'll just come to you!"
He surged forward, metal shrieking beneath his acceleration.
Juvia didn't waver. Her eyes were locked on his arms. 'He's not transforming them?'
'Why? Wouldn't that increase his power?'
He closed the distance in a heartbeat.
His grin widened.
Two sharp jabs shot forward, fast and clean.
They passed straight through her face.
Her head liquefied on impact, dispersing into a splash that reformed instantly behind his fists.
''My dragon slayer iron club, as well as my dragon slayer iron spear, didn't do anything to her from before'
'I know that now!'
Without hesitation, he clasped both hands together and brought them down in a crushing hammer strike.
Her upper body dissolved again and water burst outward.
His eyes narrowed.
This time, he watched closely.
Shedding from her form with every force were small droplets.
He pivoted sharply, hips snapping into a full roundhouse kick.
The strike tore through her torso.
Water scattered again. More droplets spraying outward before pulling back into her shape.
'There it is!'
His boots scraped against the metal beneath him as he rebalanced.
''There must be a limit to what her water can and can't do!'
His gaze sharpened.
''If I can find her weakness, I can win!'
He steadied himself for half a breath.
Unfortunately, that half-breath was enough.
Compressed water spiraled instantly into Juvia's palm.
His eyes widened.
'Crap! A sphere of water!?'
He was too close to evade.
He crossed his forearms in front of his face.
Doesn't matter. I'll block it and—
The sphere struck.
It didn't explode. It vibrated.
A violent shock pulsed outward on contact, a compressed wave of force detonating through his guard. The impact screamed up his arms, metal grinding against bone as his stance shattered.
His body jerked backward and launched.
He tore across the flooded corridor, skidding violently over the water's surface before slamming into the far wall.
The collision pulverized stone.
The structure collapsed around him in a burst of fractured debris. Water crashed against the rubble.
Juvia lowered her hand slowly. "I put more magic into that one."
Gajeel shot up from the rubble almost immediately, a manic grimace twisting across his face.
"That was nothing!" he shouted, voice wild with defiance. "I can still fight!"
He took a step forward and the world stabbed back. A sharp, burning pain ripped through his arm like a blade dragged across raw nerves.
"GRAAAAHHHH—DAMN IT!!"
He staggered, clutching his left arm. Blood ran down from his forearm in dark streaks, dripping steadily onto the water-covered floor.
His teeth clenched so hard they creaked.
'My arm…'
His eyes locked onto the wound.
'Was that from her attack?'
The pain pulsed again, sharp and angry.
"That looks painful." Juvia's voice came calmly through the corridor.
Her expression remained vacant, almost detached, as she slowly drifted across the flooded hallway. The water beneath her feet didn't ripple. She simply floated over it, carried by unseen force.
Gajeel glared.
"You're using Floating Magic?" he snapped. "How the hell do you know multiple types of magic?"
Even he, trained by a dragon, by one of the so-called apex predators of the world—only knew a single discipline at his age.
Yet she moved between abilities like it was nothing.
Juvia tilted her head slightly.
"It isn't particularly difficult when your talent is as great as mine," she said plainly. "You shouldn't feel bad."
Her eyes studied him quietly.
"You're one of the stronger opponents I've fought. Even compared to adults… you and I far surpass most of the older generation."
She descended lightly onto the water in front of him.
Then she extended a hand.
"You can't continue fighting with injuries like that," she said. "Let me help you."
Smack!
Gajeel slapped her hand away with his uninjured arm.
"I don't need anyone's pity!" he roared. "Don't start thinking you've already won. I'm just getting started."
He bent his head and tore a strip of cloth from his shirt with his teeth.
"After all…"
He wrapped the fabric tightly around his bleeding arm, yanking it taut with a sharp pull.
"I'm a Dragon Slayer."
Juvia watched the makeshift bandage tighten around the wound. Her expression didn't change.
"Oh, I'm well aware of who you are."
Her voice remained calm.
"Gajeel Lionheart."
His hands froze.
Slowly, he looked up.
"…What's that supposed to mean?"
"Master José has spoken about you many times," Juvia explained. "He holds your strength in very high regard."
She folded her hands behind her back.
"He told me quite a lot about you. Including you being some type of dragon slayer…"
"Well, naturally," Gajeel replied, scoffing. "The Master values strength above everything else. That's why this guild stands at the top of the country."
Juvia continued as if she hadn't heard the boast.
"…He also mentioned something else."
Her eyes fixed on him.
"He said you're searching for a dragon with metal scales."
Gajeel's gaze sharpened instantly. "You mean Metalicana."
The name came out low and heavy.
"What do you know about him…?"
"Nothing at all." Juvia immediately raised both hands in surrender. "I truly know nothing about that dragon."
She lowered them again.
"But I am searching for a certain kind of person." Her gaze became slightly more focused.
"And I was hoping… you might help me find them."
Gajeel's eyes narrowed. 'So that's it.'
His thoughts sharpened quickly.
'She pretended she didn't want to fight.
But that whole display…'
'But in reality, she was just showing off her power in the hope that I would respect her for her strength'.
'So I'd be more willing to answer her questions.' A crooked grin slowly crept onto his face.
'She's smart…'
"Have you ever heard of the Ebonveil Clan?" Juvia asked.
Gajeel's eyes widened.
"…Ebonveil?"
His thoughts jolted.
'Isn't that Albion's family name?'