Chapter 28

Forest Menace

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's, and my Ideas

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Alumina paused in her walking, eyes closed and body tense. Loke noticed the reaction and came to a stop as well, wary for anything in the surrounding trees.

They had been walking for an hour or so, mostly in silence, though Alumina had answered a few questions along they way. The blonde was becoming more relaxed speaking about 'Mind Divergence' now, and he was happy to see her becoming less tense. However now, he knew she had heard something, and he strained his own ears to try to catch what it was.

She had explained to him that there were a few creatures and animals within these woods, but so far, thankfully, she had not come across anything too dangerous yet. For what she had come across, Ursa had taken care of with little to no problem.

Alumina had also told him what the job was. It seemed relatively simple, but at the same time, he had been wondering why the client would want a Wizard to deliver something so small?

Well, he got his answer.

From out of the trees, a huge, two-story tall creature prowled out. Its clawed paws easily caved the earth underneath it as it walked, and even made it shake a little. Trees cracked and fell over as it pushed past roughly, its small yellow eyes bearing down on both of them in an instant. Its entire body was covered in dark green scales, its long tail adorned by black spikes that ran all the way up its tail and back. It had a short snout, small, drooping ears and very large, yellow-stained teeth sticking out from under its lips. Its feet were more like that of a bears, than anything, and its head was the same way.

No One POV

Alumina sweatdropped slightly at the immensity of the creature. She had never seen anything like it before, but he only had one word for it;

Chimera.

This was however, not Moldy, who had easily been scared off by Erza alone.

Loke sweatdropped too, this was not what he had been expecting. He had to crane his neck just to get a good look at the damn thing!

Alumina took a small step back, eyes narrowing and facing going neutral. This had to be what was killing, attacking, and taking people who passed through here.

The chimera stood still for a moment, simply staring at them and growling lowly. Alumina took the momentary pause to pull her hair up into a high ponytail; all of her hair, so her left eye was completely uncovered.

It remained a pale, almost white, though the golden symbol of Mind Divergence did not appear this time around. Loke glanced sideways at her, surprised she would leave that eye uncovered, but then he realized she must not are any longer, considering he had already seen it before.

Now that he thought about it, the odd color that Alumina's left eye was... He had seen something like it before in other people over the years, and he stiffened slightly, sweatdropping when the thought occurred to him that... Alumina probably couldn't see anything out of that left eye.

Alumina reached a hand out to the side, pulling her staff from her Magic Storage. Loke clenched his fists, the Magic of his rings glowing faintly as he activated them. They had the feeling they weren't getting out of this without a fight, and besides, better some Wizards exterminated this monster before it had the chance to hurt anymore people passing through.

"Ready?" Alumina asked, looking determined and calm despite the size of the Chimera facing them down, still growling furiously.

Loke nodded, gaze switching from her to the creature. "Ready."

Alumina POV

Alumina jumped to the side as the chimera lunged, missing his fangs and swiping her staff out to slam against the side of its face. The chimera snarled at her, the hit doing nothing but angering it. Alumina jumped back to put some distance between them, and Loke swung out with a light encased fist, sending the Chimera stumbling a little.

It rounded on Loke, he barely managed to avoid a bite from it, and she winced at the sight.

"Open: Gate of The Golden Bull!" She grabbed a key from her belt and swiped it to the side in front of her with a line of dazzling gold. "Taurus!" The amount of Magic it took to summon him felt like a lot, being weakened as she was, but she really didn't care right now.

Taurus materialized in front of her, letting out a moo of excitement. "MOO! Its great to see that rocking body of yours again!" He smirked toward her, and she sighed, not really in the mood for his antics right now. She did however notice, that once he saw her eye uncovered, he did falter a little, but she didn't care to explain right now.

"Yes, yes... Could you please help us out, Taurus?" She asked politely. He nodded, turning toward the Chimera and raising his axe above him, no longer smirking.

"Moooove!" The giant bull shouted, heading straight toward the creature. The shout was directed at Loke, who happily moved out of the way for Taurus to attack. "Rampage!" The Spirit jumped into the air and swung his axe down toward the ground, sending a huge tremor through it as the earth shattered out in a line straight toward the Chimera.

The chimera was knocked backwards and sent flying through the air by the attack, landing on the ground with a loud thump and a pained yell. Taurus smirked at his win, no longer seemingly bothered by seeing Alumina's uncovered eye.

The Chimera climbed to its feet, growling lowly, eyes turning to Taurus, who straightened up. "Lets goo!" He smirked, and the chimera charged, Taurus met it head on, getting it into a hold, before easily punching it away.

With that, Loke sprung into action, the Magic of his rings blazing madly. "Regulus Impact!" The creature was hit with dazzling golden Magic before it had time to get back to its feet.

The chimera roared in pain, Alumina smiled a little. She liked that both Loke and Taurus were a good team, they seemed to work well together. She faintly wondered if Loke was able to work well with several of the other Spirits? She got the feeling that with him being the leader of the Zodiac, he may be able to work efficiently with many of the other Zodiac Keys.

Even Taurus seemed like he would work well with several of the other Spirits as well, from what she had seen of his fighting habits so far.

She leaned against her staff, usually she would be right there with her Spirits fighting, but as much as she hated to admit it, she was still not up to full power, and besides, her attacks with her staff had done nothing to the Chimera before.

She was a little disappointed in herself for not being stronger, she felt that she should be. Her Magic wasn't really meant for the strong, summoning Spirits didn't require any physical activity, only Magic Power. Now if she were Natsu, or any of the Mages back in the Guild... They were all so much stronger than her, they had power, they had physical strength.

And her? She had Spirits, spirits she loved, spirits she wanted to protect with all her might, spirits she would never hurt.

Well, not intentionally...

She sighed silently, a black cloud hovering over her heart suddenly. She had hurt Loke, it didn't matter what he said otherwise, it was her fault he got hurt, it was her fault he had to suffer through Mind Divergence. She was never going to forgive herself for that, even if he asked her to. It was a simple truth, it was her fault he had been hurt, and she knew she was going to live with the guilt of it for the rest of her life.

She had done what she had promised herself never to do, she had hurt one of her spirits and that was unforgivable.

She was snapped from her thoughts once the Chimera was defeated, and its body turned to ash as soon as it was dead. Odd to be sure, she had never thought anything would turn to ash when it died, but sure enough, the particles of gray were swept up by the breeze, and carried away in a matter of moments.

Loke and Taurus turned back to her, both smiling slightly, and she smiled back. They stopped in front of her, and she could tell Taurus was itching to ask questions, but she wasn't really in the mood to answer them. The last few days had been emotionally wearing for her, and she was trusting Taurus could tell she wasn't ready to explain anything right now.

"Thanks Taurus!" Alumina told him brightly, if not a little wearily. Taurus smiled slightly, nodding.

"Sure thing, anything for yoooou!" He answered, "Someone's gotta protect that body!" He said with his signature pervy smirk, and she smiled a little more, happy to see his usual demeanor return.

"I appreciate it." She answered softly. "See you soon!" She waved as he began to disappear.

"Moo!"

Her attention turned to Loke, "You ok?" She asked, worried he may have tired himself out. She was going to be worried no matter what, she knew how much strain Mind Divergence out on someone, and she knew how fast someone could tire out because of it.

Loke smiled reassuringly, arms crossing over his chest. "I'm fine." He promised, "That thing wasn't too strong, especially not for your strong, handsome Prince." He added in with a light, slightly teasing tone. Alumina rolled her eyes at him, but chuckled none-the-less. Loke smiled at her reaction, "You ready to head out again?"

She nodded, "Sure, I need to get this job done pretty soon, otherwise Mira will send out a search party." She said lightly, mind flashing back to how worried Mira was about her.

Loke POV

Loke nodded, knowing all to well how much Mira could worry about people, especially about someone like Alumina who not so long ago, got pretty beat up by a rampaging Dragon Slayer. Anyone would be worried for the blonde for taking on a job so soon after getting injured like that.

He frowned slightly once Alumina had her back turned to him, she was putting her staff back into her Magic Storage.

He himself had more reason to worry than Mirajane did, because he knew how much weaker Alumina was now, after having used Mind Divergence without meaning to. He knew Alumina wasn't doing very well before, and now adding recent events on to that would make her condition worse.

She seemed fine, she was pretty good at hiding her real condition, but he could tell she was tired and strained. He sighed silently at the thought, suddenly glad she had decided to leave the fighting of the Chimera to Taurus and himself. He wasn't sure how well she would do against it right now, and he didn't want to risk her making her condition any worse.

He silently promised himself he was going to stay with her for as long as he could manage, and come back often so he could check up on her, just until she was really back to 100%.

Alumina looked back at him with a small smile, one he returned before they headed off down the path again in silence.

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