Fairy Tail Origins Episode 1: The Eternal Journey

Hecate's eyes slightly widened as she placed distance between them. "Should have known." She thought with narrowed eyes. Well, two could play that game. Close combat most likely wouldn't work, so she would simply let her instincts run wild.

Hecate drew her fan. She flicked her wrist, sending iron needles towards Velia direction. She crouched before jumping high into the air. She unzipped her zippers, having a feeling she would have to all-out. Grinding as the large, iron wings burst from her back, she hovered in the sky. She wasn't going to use Gungnir this time around, she just needed the extra mobility.

It occurred to her how weak she really was. She bit the tip of her index finger in irritation.

Hecate scowled. That was an intentional miss. "I told you. I want to get stronger to repay the people that gave me a home. What more do you want me to tell you? That I fight for my friends or something?" She asked harshly.

She nosedived towards Velia. "Iron Dragon's Roar!" A beam of iron zeroed in on Velia before Hecate zipped to the right. "Iron Dragon's Claw!" With that, both her hands became claws. Hopefully she could land a hit on the Shadow Dragon as she attempted to dodge her previous attack.

Hecate scanned the pillars, her eyes narrowing as she saw the... Thing that emerged from the pillar. Confused in many ways, the Iron Dragon stared down her adversary. "Are you telling me that fighting for people isn't the way to grow stronger? Or... Are you telling me I need to find a goal in life and fight for it? Well, my goal is to never be abandoned, and I'll fight like hell to ensure that never happens to me again. I refuse to be alone again. No, I refuse to accept such a thing at all." Her eyes grew cold as her skin began to harden. It seemed as if she was diverting half her iron supply to the task. Her skin turned a light grey color.

The iron claw tips became narrower, yet much longer than before, and the wings seemed to expand, slowly hardening as it was coated with more iron.  Eventually, they were about as efficient as an iron shield. Her left claw slowly shifted into lance. In any other case, it would have been a spectacle if not for the comical length of the lance and the pointed tip.The lance opened, slowly resembling something akin to a smaller, quicker Gatling gun capable of firing rapid iron 'bullets'. She kept her right claw open for slashing.

Gareth returned from washing his face, still feeling a little chilly.

Let's get some fresh air in here.

Gareth swung open the window to his room. He was expecting a mostly peaceful day, and was instead greeted with the sight of the ground sunk in the distance, black lightning striking that area, and a large, demonic, and truly frightening entity in the middle of it all, seemingly staring down something that's a bit too far away to identify.

What the hell...

Pinching himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming, Gareth stepped out of his room and hurried downstairs to where find Zalia.

"There's a demon with wings by a hill over there overlooking the city," he pointed toward the general direction he saw the thing. "Is that normal around here, or should we be grabbing our weapons?"

"...Oh," said Gareth, a slight hint of disappointment in his voice.

And here I was hoping for something to get my blood pumping.

"That sounds a bit overkill for a sparring match," he commented. "So what's Alicorn Wing doing here?"

"Honor had nothing to do with it." Grigori shook his head. "Unless you refer to keeping a promise as 'honor'."

"That won't work," Velia said calmly, almost as if reading Hecate's mind. She casually swiped her hand in front of her, and that single action unleashed a massive shockwave of darkness and wind, knocking the iron bullets aside like toys and sending Hecate spiraling backwards through the air.

"Darkness and light are the same. They cannot exist without the other. You can no more extinguish my shadows than you can extinguish the Sun."

Velia suddenly charged without a moment's warning. Her speed was blinding, so much so that she appeared to teleport. She was there one moment, and the next she was right in front of Hecate. A small ball of darkness appeared in Velia's hand, and she slammed it into Hecate's stomach, shattering her iron skin like glass and sending her crashing to the ground below.

Velia landed on the ground in front of where Hecate fell, her appearance returning to normal, as Orion and Hecate's Guildmate came running over.

"Relax," Velia said preemptively. "I intentionally held back. She'll be sore for a couple hours, but otherwise perfectly fine."

As Hecate slowly rose to her knees, Velia gave a rare smile and leaned down to offer her hand. "You have a lot of potential, kid. But you need to learn how to rely on your instincts more, and how to think on a different level from everyone else. Combine that with a reason to fight, not just for others, or some goal, but for yourself, and the knowledge to protect... That's what makes a S-Class Wizard. I have no doubt in my mind you'll get there someday."

Velia helped Hecate up and once more offered her hand, this time for a handshake. "There are some things we can only learn about each other by fighting. Wizards are odd that way. Whenever you want to spar Hecate, I will gladly be your training partner."

------

This time, Zalia gave a deeper laugh. "My boy, if there's one thing you'll quickly learn about us, it's that we don't do anything halfway. The meaning of the word overkill is lost on most of my grandchildren. As you can probably imagine, that's the reason we're a bit infamous for going overboard on jobs. And besides, that was Velia's way of showing respect for her opponent. But enough of that. Are you hungry? You were asleep all morning. I saved your breakfast and lunch, and it will only take a minute or so to heat up. And afterwards, if you're bored, you can go catch up to Eden and Cenric, who are giving a couple of the members from Alicorn Wing a tour of the city. They're only in town to escort a trade ship, and they have to leave tonight, so now might be your only chance to introduce yourself for a while."

"I wouldn't confuse honor with responsibility." Grigori replied.

"Well, Harborshore's definitely not as pretty as Rosebud..." Leone admits. "Lots of grey buildings, lots of stores and warehouses. But if you're looking to do some shopping, there's nowhere better! We constantly have ships coming and going from all sorts of exotic ports, so there's always someone new and interesting to meet. If you're ever in the area, stop by and I'll treat you to this wonderful little restaurant that does dishes from all over the world. As for the guild... We're not as... energetic as Silver Chimera seems to be. Everything's very laid-back. We don't get to many high-profile contracts, but we get by."