Solomon's Child (Fairy Tail Fanfic)

Solomon's Child Part 30

"Hoh? Now this is a surprise." Erza muttered, almost to herself, as Lucy and Wendy approached. "Of all the participants I thought might be eliminated in the first part of the exam, I never expected you two to be amongst them. Who exactly did you go up against that forced your withdrawal?"

"Gray and Loke." Lucy answered easily as she took a seat at the picnic table that someone had put up, the blonde mage only pausing for a second as she considered who exactly could have created furniture this far away from civilization. Although, now that I consider it, considering the size of Ms. Sca- Erza's luggage, it's entirely possible she had one with her. "They used close range tactics to force us into a melee and pressured us until we were backed into a corner so I conceded the fight."

"I see...well, don't feel too down Lucy, there's nothing wrong with loosing your first S-class trial." Erza comforted before retuning to the grill, the smell of cooking meat making even the stalwart elemental mage feel hungry.

But her thoughts were turned away from food when she hear a very quiet whine beside her "Unn...if I was just a bit stronger them maybe..." Wendy murmured sadly as she stared down at her hands.

Lucy fought off a sigh as she placed a hand on the younger slayer's head, startling the girl out of whatever thoughts were clouding her mind. "Wendy, we talked about this already and I'm not going to repeat myself. No more of those kinds of thoughts ok?"

"O-ok...sorry."

"And no more apologizing." Lucy finished as she turned back and looked over at another tent that had been set up, a tent that held two other participants of the trials. "Erza? What happened to Juvia and Lisanna? They look pretty injured." Lucy asked as she observed the two mages wrapping bandages around their arms, their faces a mixture of pain and exhaustion. Good, Cana and Tiria aren't here. Which means that they are either still fighting, or that they managed to pass the first trial. Now I just need to find out anything I can

"Ah, they chose their path poorly and ended up fighting me." The red-head answered simply, both Lucy and Wendy flinching at the thought of having to go up against the requip mage. "They lack sufficient training as well, something both they and you two will have to remedy when we return to Fairy Tail."

"A-ah...has anyone else dropped out yet?" Lucy eventually asked, the blonde ignoring both her own unease and Wendy's fearful murmurs at the thought of the red-head training them.

"As of now no, but I imagine that whoever was unfortunate enough to find Mirajane will soon join us. Not even mentioning the Gildarts team." Erza answered before tossing both dragon slayers aprons. "But enough of your questions, we have food to prepare so you two will be helping!" The S-class mage ordered as she brandished her ladle at the two of them, both mages jumping to attention at the shear intimidation of it all.

"Yes ma'am!" The two girls shouted as they leapt forward to obey, neither mage willing to test Erza's patience.

The cooking was going as well as it could, at least as far as Lucy was concerned, and they were even joined by Lisanna and Juvia after the two mages had finished treating their wounds. But it wasn't long until the peaceful atmosphere was shattered by the air itself trying to crush them.

"Wha...this pressure...magical energy?" Lucy thought out loud as the very ground beneath them began to shake from the sheer force of ethernano being released.

Someone out there was releasing an immense amount of magic, enough that the blonde mage nearly lost control of her higher functions as Dragon Lucy attempted to seize control. The subconscious part of her mind interpreting the massive energy signature as an incoming attack.

"This is a surprise, to think that he'd get this serious." Erza muttered, almost to herself, as she gazed back in the direction of the caves.

"M-Ms. Erza, d-do you know who this magic belongs to?" Juvia questioned as she braced herself, her legs nearly giving out due to her already weakened state and the shear amount of energy pressing down on them.