Adventure Time X Fairy Tail

Disclaimer: I do not own Adventure Time or Fairy Tail

Chapter 2: New world. Old Frost. Pt.2

"Frost Shot."

A leaf that had been gently falling to the ground before suddenly dropped like a rock. Reason being it was now frozen in a small block of ice. As Simon had been following the tracker he had been doing this every time he spotted a descending leaf. So far he was 12 of 15 leaves hit; he even hit a falling acorn earlier.

"Yes!" Simon let out a cheer, fist pumping as he did so.

Simon had been surprised how good his aim had been. Even during his time in the post apocalypse he had never used anything like a gun but he guessed over a thousand years of being Ice King had made up for that. After a few more shots at falling leaves he turned his attention back to his phone. The tracker was unchanged so he decided to look through his phone to see if The Boss had added anything else, to his surprise there were a few other new apps.

The first was labeled 'Guide Book to Earth-land'. A cursory glance at the app showed Simon that it was a bunch of general information about the world he found himself in. Resolving to give the app a thorough inspection letter he moved on to the next one labeled 'GPS'. Which was exactly what Simon expected it to be, a global positioning system. Though when he activated it an error message popped up that said 'Error: GPS non functional within range of anomalous energy field.'

"Nothing ever comes easy does it?" Simon sighed out before moving to the next app.

This one was labeled 'Inventory'. When he opened the app his free hand began to glow with white light which made him jump at first. A text box appeared on his phone's screen but the box was blank. Simon glanced between his phone and his now glowing hand confused. Before he could really think about what to do next another leaf decided from above and touched his glowing hand. In a flash the leaf disappeared and his phone let out a beep. Checking the screen he noticed that the text box had something new in it. It was a picture of the leaf that had touched his hand and was simply labeled 'leaf'. Simon gave an inquisitive smirk as he was pretty sure he knew where this was going. After highlighting the only thing in the text box he hit the confirm button. In a flash the leaf reappeared in his free hand.

"Fascinating." Simon muttered to himself as he examined the leaf. His mind began to wonder about all the limitations of this 'Inventory' app. What was the biggest thing he could store? How many items could be stored? Was the limit based on weight or mass? Where did it all go? A pocket dimension or a separate location? With his future endeavors in mind could it be weaponized? Could it-

Smack!

Simon's thoughts came to an abrupt end when he ran face first into a low hanging branch. Simon resisted the urge to rub his face after stumbling back. Didn't feel like testing whether he could send himself into his inventory.

"Think about this stuff when you're off the clock, Simon." He chastised himself as he turned off the app and continued down the path.

Making sure he wasn't going to run into another tree he looked at the final two apps. The first was labeled 'Anomaly Destroyer / Extractor' and the other was labeled 'Wish'.

"So I use my phone to get rid of these things?" Before he could ponder anymore on the apps his phone suddenly went off letting him know he got a notification.

'Warning: Anomalous entity detected. Proceed with caution.'

"An entity?"

Simon thought back to the example that The Boss had shown him with the twisted form of the Scarab and grimaced. At first his survival instincts from his time in the post apocalypse told him he should try to avoid it and go straight for the anomaly but shook off the idea.

"I'm supposed to fight The Lich at some point. Avoiding fights won't help me in the long run." Simon reminded himself.

The idea of purposefully getting into a fight made him a bit nervous. When he was himself he had tried to avoid fights, treating it as a last resort even then most of those fights were usually just sneak attacks. Whether it was his time in the apocalypse when he had to stealthily dispatch oozzers or in his last adventure where he staked an unsuspecting vampire but in a straight fight…

Simon couldn't help but think back on his quest with Finn, specifically when he was attacked by that 'evil bear'. The former king of ice would have died if Finn hadn't been there. Simon shook off the memory.

"No." He looked at the hand he had been slinging spells with a few minutes before, blue lightning danced across his fingers. "This time is different. I have Ice King's power now."

During his thousand plus years of being the Ice King he had been in hundreds if not thousands of fights, a good number of which he won. Heck Ice King had beaten a god… the god of partying but still. With Ice King's memories returned to him he could even see a few times where he could have beaten Finn and Jake if he hadn't stopped to gloat about it.

Closing his hand into a fist as the lightning became more powerful, the bolts arcing around his fist.

"If Ice King was at least a challenge to someone like Finn and Jake. Then I can take down one lousy monster."

Simon was filled with a confidence he hadn't felt in awhile as the lightning grew brighter around his fist. He began to to condensed the energy until the energy was entirely contained in his closed palm. Blue light could be seen shining through cracks of his closed fist. He turned his closed hands towards a tree ready to release this new spell. His mind searched for a name for it.

SCREEEEEEEE!

Simon jumped in surprise at the sudden screech and the spell fizzled out without his concentration. Looking around frantically trying to find the source of the sound. He didn't see anything. Calming down a bit he listened carefully for more noise. Then in the distance he heard it, another loud 'Screeee!' followed up with a yell of 'Circle Sword!'. Finally the sound of metal clashing against metal along with a series of crashes.

Simon snapped his attention in the direction of the commotion.

"Is someone fighting the entity?"

Then after a particularly loud boom he heard a scream of pain. Simon's eyes went wide with alarm.

"They're- they're in trouble!"

Simon immediately began to run towards the sounds of conflict as he immersed himself in Ice King's memories of combat, hoping it would be enough.

Eventually he saw obvious signs of combat. There were the usual signs of kicked up dirt, destroyed trees, some trees looked like the had been slashed, and smashed boulders but there were also a bunch of large iron spikes scattered everywhere, stuck in the ground, impaled into trees, some of the spikes had just punched straight through some of the trees. From what he could tell the spikes ranged in size from as big as one of his arms up to twice as tall as he was. Simon was slowly becoming unnerved by the amount of destruction but he continued following the sounds of conflict until he noticed a clearing up ahead.

The first thing he saw in the clearing caused him to freeze in place and his eyes went wide. It was a huge monster that was the size of a two story house. It had four large and bulky lizard like legs with a bulky body that was like a porcupine, the large quills looked like they were made of a dark iron like the spikes he had passed by earlier, it's neck was as long as the rest of its body but was more like the the body of a centipede, and finally its head was that of a snake with a large rhinoceros horn at the end of its nose. It had myriad of bleed cuts across its body along with a number of swords impaled into its hide. It was hissing angrily at something across from it on the other end of the clearing.

That being a woman with long scarlet red hair that was facing against the colossal monster. Currently she was wearing silver armor with an angel motif to it. Wings of silver metal protruding from the armor's back. A sword in each hand along with several more floating around her. The woman was breathing heavily, obviously winded but what caught Simon's attention was the spike impaled in the woman's stomach. It was smaller than the other spikes he'd seen only about as big as an arrow.

SCREEEEEE!

The monster let loose another roar of rage which caused Simon to snap his attention back to it. His eyes went wide as the spikes on the monster's back suddenly stood on end and began to glow with red energy. The woman grimaced, obviously she knew what was coming and she adjusted her stance as her swords began to glow with a white light in response to the monster's red.

With another roar dozens of the monster's spikes launched off its back and came down on the woman like a rain of arrows. Simon was about to try to rush in and and make some kind of shield of ice to try and protect the armored woman. That idea quickly came to an end when the woman took to the sky rushing up to meet the falling spikes.

"Circle Sword!"

Several of the floating swords rapidly spun around the scarlet haired woman deflecting many of the iron spikes that the monster had launched at her before she flew higher into the air. Just barely avoiding the monster's snapping jaws as the beast had launched its head forward, its neck doubling in length to accomplish this.

SCREEEEEE!

The monster roared up at the scarlet haired woman annoyed at the near miss.

"Blumenblatt!"

After the woman yelled her spell, her swords in her hands and the blades from the earlier Circle Sword glowed with light blue power. She made two slashes with the swords in her hands against the side of the monster's head followed by the other swords to launch into the monster's head. There was an explosion of light blue light upon impact that knocked the monster's head back. The scarlet haired woman gritted her teeth in annoyance as she looked at the result of her attack. Oh it was injured but it was hardly substantial. The two slashes just barely cut through the scaly face, leaving only shallow bleeding cuts and the other swords just stuck into its hide. The monster let out a screech of annoyance and swung its head back at her. She wasn't fast enough to dodge this time and was knocked out of the sky from the hit. She hit the ground so hard the impact created a small crater. The scarlet haired woman was slow to get back to her feet. Ignorant of the fact that all of the spikes on the monster's back had regrown and were glowing with power again. Simon's eyes went wide.

'She's not going to get up in time!' He thought alarmed, more on instinct than any conscious decision he called upon his magic. Simon reached his arm back like he was about to throw a baseball. Blue lightning pooled into his hand before forming into a sphere around his hand. An improvised name for this new spell on his lips.

"Cryo Bomb!"

Simon threw the sphere like it was a fast ball and it flew at the monster like a lightning bolt. The spell exploded against the monster's side in a flurry of snow and arctic wind, causing it to stagger a bit from the impact. Ice rapidly spread from the point of impact across it's side and back until all of its quills were trapped in a thick layer of ice.

Simon was a bit stunned with the result. He knew the crown had given him a lot of raw magic power but seeing the results without the haze of madness left him surprised. This moment of inaction came to end when the beast screeched in confusion as it looked over its now frozen back before looking directly at Simon. It let out a primal screech and its head lunged toward him.

"Oh glob!" Simon cried out as instinct took hold again. An arctic blast of wind and snow launched him into the air avoiding the monster's attack. "That was close." He muttered as he looked down at the monster as its face smashed into the place he had been standing. Suddenly he panicked when he realized he was falling back down.

'Shouldn't I be flying?!' He thought alarmed before he realized something. 'I don't have a beard anymore!'

He fell atop the monster's head and it immediately began to thrash about trying to throw Simon off. Simon tried to hold but was flung off after a particularly strong thrash. He braced for impact, hoping he would hit something soft. To his surprise it was soft… and cold. Opening his eyes he realized he was a few feet deep in a snowbank.

"Must have made this on reflex." Simon thought aloud. He froze when he looked out of the hole he made when he crashed. Glaring down at him was the monster, it was getting ready to strike. Simon immediately took aim with finger guns.

"Frost Shot!"

He fired two bolts of cold lightning into its eyes, blinding it temporarily. It thrashed its head side to side trying to get the ice out its eyes, screeching in pain. Simon took advantage of the distraction and pulled himself out of the snow bank. Once he was out of the hole he immediately had to dodge as the monster began to blindly smash its horn where it thought he might be.

Though Simon was able to get out of the way of the strikes, his unstable footing with the loose snow caused him to trip. He tumbled down the newly created snowbank before unceremoniously landing face first into the grass. As Simon got on all fours he couldn't help but think of the last 'quest' with Finn again.

"Handling this better than the bear at least." He groaned.

CLANG!

Simon's head snapped upward at the sound of clashing metal. Standing over him was the red haired woman, her face set in a grimace of effort. As the woman was holding off the monster with her swords, pushing against the beast's giant horn. Simon looked up at this, his eyes wide in surprise.

The woman shouted, obvious strain in her voice. "Run! Before it -!"

The woman's exclamation was cut off when the monster let out a screech of annoyance at being denied its kill and began to put more pressure in an attempt to crush the both of them. As the monster was doing this its horn flashed the same red light as its spikes from earlier. The next thing Simon knew he and the woman were glowing with the same light.

"What's happening?" Simon couldn't help but ask.

"It…has us… targeted… now!" The woman spoke, her voice strained.

Simon was briefly confused before he noticed it. The spikes that had been scattered around the area were now floating and were pointed directly at the two of them, they were enveloped in the same red light. Simon put two and two together but the woman seemed to have already experienced this. Several more floating swords flashed into existence around them and began spinning, readying themselves for the coming onslaught. The monster seemed to notice this and put even more pressure on the woman. The strain on the woman's strength seemed to have an effect on the spin of the swords, the rotation slowing to a crawl. It was that moment that the monster chose to strike. The spikes flew like arrows at the two of woman closed her eyes in hope of getting enough focus to cast another Circle Sword spell.

She couldn't.

"Ice Dome!"

There was a flash of blue light and instantly the weight she had been holding disappeared, the sudden lack of it causing her to stumble and take a knee. A moment later the muffled sound spikes hitting ice. Opening her eyes again she found herself in… well… a dome of ice. Simon had gotten to his feet and was turning to face her, his hands still sparking a bit with blue lightning.

"You alive?" He asked with a nervous smile.

The woman gave him an odd look at the question.

"Yes, I… believe so. Thank You."

"Don't mention it." Simon's eye was drawn down to the woman's injury and grimaced. "Your hurt."

The scarlet haired woman looked down at the one spike that had gotten through her defenses.

"It's fine. I've been through worse." The woman said in her defense.

At that moment there was a loud bang outside of the doom of ice that shook the entire structure. The sound caused Simon to flinch as he turned to the sound. There was a crack there.

"I don't think your dome is going to last long under that monster's assault." The woman commented. Simon nodded at her assessment before glancing at her injury.

"I'll… I'll destract it. You run." Simon said with a bit of hesitation before rushing to the edge of the dome.

"What? Wait!" The woman shouted but Simon didn't stop and simply used his magic to create an exit to the dome. As soon as he was out of the dome Simon looked towards the monster. It was retracting its neck readying another slam attack with its horn against the dome.

Simon reacted immediately with another Cryo Bomb. The ball of condensed ice lightning slammed into the side of its face, the ice quickly spreading across its large head. The monster screeched in protest before slamming it's face on the ground to getting the ice off. Simon dashed towards the monster hoping to capitalize on the distraction as he recalled a spell the ice king used against the party god. He raised his hand over his head in a Karate chop like manner.

"Cold Caliber!"

A giant blade of ice appeared over his hand that was at least two stories tall. Simon brought the giant sword down with all his might on the anomalies neck. The monster screeched in pain as the blade bit into its carapace but to Simon's frustration the cut was shallow. The monster lashed out in anger, smashing the ice sword before its head lunged at Simon. He quickly tried to cast another spell to defend himself but was cut off by another shout.

"Requip: Giant Armor!"

Suddenly a spear slammed home into the monster's head with such force it caused the monster to jolt back.

"I am not a damsel in need of rescue, sir." Simon turned around to see the scarlet haired woman was standing behind him in a new set of armor.

This armor was yellow and black in color with white fur trim. Its large gauntlets and bulky pauldrons had black crosses on them. Atop her head were some yellow and black horns. She was giving Simon an intensely unamused look.

"Um… sorry. Hero complex I guess." Was all Simon could think to say in his defense.

Before anymore could be said the monster screeched out in rage as it managed to dislocate the spear from its face with one of its claws. The scarlet haired woman held out her open palm and the spear flew back into her hand. The monster glared at the two of them in rage and screeched in challenge. The woman slammed the butt of the spear into the ground undaunted but Simon's old survival instincts caused him to flinch in response, he didn't run through.

The monster's back began to glow red again as it was obviously trying to fire its quills again but the ice was keeping them in place.

"Looks like it can't use that attack anymore." Simon said with a relieved laugh.

"I won't be so sure." The woman replied as she took a battle stance. At that moment the ice on the monster's back began to crack and the ice covered quills began to come loose.

"Can you make another ice dome?" The woman asked, not taking her eyes off the monster. "Another dome could give me a chance to counter."

Simon looked between the woman and the monster before getting an idea.

"If you just need the spikes not to hit you then I can do better than a dome." Simon replied confidently before his body began to glow with a soft bluish white light. At that moment the monster managed to fire its ice covered quills at the two.

"Cryomancy!"

Simon held out his hand to the quills that had been flying at them and suddenly they changed their trajectory. Doing a quick u-turn the ice covered quills slammed back into the monster's vulnerable back before fresh quills could grow. The monster howls in pain as several of its own quills sunk deep into its back.

"Impressive." She said with a smirk before pulling back her arm to hurll the spear. With an all mighty boom she launched the spear at high speeds. The monster, unable to move in time, had the spear punched straight through its horn and buried itself deep into the monster's forehead.

To the two humans' surprise this did not kill it. It lashed out in pain, screeching and howling as it whipped its head back and forth.

"This thing is really durable." Simon said exasperated at how much damage the monster was taking. Before the woman could say give any kind of agreement. The monster stopped shaking its head and glared at the two of them with murder in its eyes. It roared louder than had ever before and its horn began to glow red. All the previous quills it had fired coalesced around its horn and face making what looked like a wicked sharp battering ram.

"I think it's throwing everything it has at us now." The scarlet haired woman said as she summoned a new spear to her hand.

Simon watched worried as red power radiated off the monster as it contracted its neck, obviously getting ready to launch its head at them like a cannon. Deciding to take first action Simon used his Cryomancy spell to grip onto the ice dome they were taking cover in earlier and flung it at the monster but before it had even reached the monster…

BOOM!

The dome was smashed to pieces by an attack so fast neither of them saw it. Only the monster pulling back its head to repeat the move.

"F-fast." Was all the woman to think to say as her face was slack with shock. Simon's only response was a nervous 'mhm'.

"I'm…I'm not confident in my ability to doge something that fast and I don't think my ice can make wall strong enough to stop it." Simon admitted after a moment.

"...I might have something that can stop it. Do you have a spell that can bring it down if I gave you an opening?" The woman asked. Simon looked at his hand that sparked with blue lightning for a moment.

"Yes. If I can hit its neck I think I could bring it down." Simon replied with more confidence than he felt.

"Get behind me then and prep your spell. It's almost ready to launch its attack again." Simon did as asked and lightning began to pool into his open palm.

"Requip: Adamantine Armor."

In a flash of light the Giant Armor disappeared and was immediately replaced with a new set. This armor was a bulkier design even compared to the giant armor. It mostly consisted of a silvery almost platinum colored metal with a dark blue chest plate and shoulder pauldrons. The samurai esk helmet was the same dark blue. Though the main focus of the armor was the two halves of a large bladed shield attached to her elbows.

The scarlet haired woman brought the two halves of the shield together to make a whole. A large aqua blue magic circle appeared in front of it a moment later.

"Will that be enough?" Simon couldn't help but ask as he quickly tried to recreate the spell he hadn't had a chance to use earlier but on a larger scale.

"My Adamantine Armor is the best shield I have. Will your spell be a complimentary spear?" She asked without turning to face him. Simon looked at his glowing fist and took a deep breath before pumping more magic into it.

"Yeah, it will." Simon said easily as he kept pumping more and more magic into the spell so much so that the very air around them began to drop and a thin layer of frost appeared on every surface around them. At the moment Simon's spell reached its apex the monster roared.

"Here it c-!"

GONG!

The woman's warning was cut off by the loud bang of the monster slamming itself into the shield. The woman held her ground but Simon heard the sharp intake of breath of repressed pain. The woman's stab wound was obviously agitated by the effort of blocking the powerful attack. Simon knew he didn't have time to worry and immediately bolted around the shield and went for the monster's long neck.

"Super Sub Zero Ice Palm!"

Simon slammed his open hand onto the monster's neck and his entire world went white. The air had become so cold the temperature caught even him off guard. As the world came back into focus Simon couldn't help but gasp at his handy work. He had been expecting the monster to be frozen in a block of ice but, no. The monster itself was frozen inside and out. As he stumbled back the monster's body began to crack and splinter before the entire thing fell apart like glass, leaving only a pile of frozen monster meat chunks. The only thing that seemed to stay in one piece was the monster's horn. As the monster fell apart he could see the area beyond the monster was frozen as well. Going all the way to the tree line of the large clearing some of the trees the ice hit were doing the same as the monster.

"I… I think I overdid it with that one." Simon said with a nervous chuckle as he watched his hands return to their natural color. Simon jolted a bit when he heard cracking ice.

"I… would… say…so." The woman said as she was struggling a bit to pull her shields apart as they were frozen together by a thick layer of ice before the ice finally gave way. "Though I would say I've seen worse collateral damage from my fellow guild mates." The woman says with a huff.

"Sorry about that. I knew it would be strong but I've never used that spell before." Simon said apologetically as he used his magic to make the ice crumble away from her shield. "Are you all right?"

In a flash of light the scarlet haired woman's armor disappeared and was replaced with… bikini. Now normally the sudden attire change would have caused him to blush and turn away, he was a gentleman after all, but it was obvious that there was a practical reason for it. In addition to the stab wound that was still bleeding, she had a large bruise on her chest.

"... I've been through worse." The woman said casually as she looked over the damage. Before he could say anything his phone went off and he checked it on reflex. He got a message from The Boss. "You wouldn't happen to have any bandages on you Mr…"

The message simply said 'A basic first aid kit has been added to your inventory courtesy of The Boss.'

"Um… Petrikov, Simon Petrikov and yes I think I do Ms..." Simon answered as he activated the inventory app and summoned the first aid kit. A small box with the classic red cross mark appeared in his hand.

"Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail and thank you." The now named Erza took the offered kit, unfazed by its sudden appearance. "What guild are you from? I was under the impression that my guild was the only one sent a request to deal with this monster." Erza asked as she began to banged up her injuries quite effectively on her own.

Simon was silent at first as he wasn't sure how much he should tell this woman or if he should say anything at all. As the woman picked up a chunk of ice to press against her large bruise she gave him an expecting look.

"Partial truth then." Simon thought to himself.

"I… I'm not part of a guild. I'm a bit of an independent contractor I guess. I wasn't here for this monster specifically but it seems it's part of the problem I've been sent to deal with." Simon explained though the admission of not being part of a guild seems to be what she seemed to find strange. Her eyes actually narrowed suspiciously.

"This thing was something else right?" Simon asked quickly before she could ask about it.

"Yes. It had been a large rhinoceros like beast before it suddenly became that thing mid-fight." Erza explained as she finished patching herself up. Her body lit up again and she was in a new set of armor though this seemed to be more casual armor if such a thing could exist. It was a simple grey metal breast plate and gauntlets. The breastplate was a gray metal with a gold cross over her right breast and an odd symbol underneath it. The symbol invoked the idea of a fairy in Simon's mind. His scientific/wizard mind wanted to ask about her magic but chose to stay on topic.

"Yeah, the thing I'm after is responsible for the beast's transformation." Simon held up his hand in the rough size of the anomaly. "Have you seen it? It's a sphere about this big and-"

"Purple and sparking with red electricity?" Erza finished Simon's description.

"... yes. How did you know?"

Rather than answer him Erza pointed behind him. Simon turned around to see the anomaly floating out of the remains of the monster they had killed.

"Ahh… thank you." He said simply as he activated the app designed to deal with the anomalies. He followed the introduction that was given which basically boiled down to taking a photo of it. After lining up the shot a prompt showed up.

Would you like to delete the anomaly? Yes/No

Simon quickly selected yes and the flash went off bathing the orb in light. A moment after the flash the orb stopped sparking and then shattered like glass. The pieces fell to the ground before slowly fading away.

"Well that part was easier than I thought it would be at least." He said to himself before turning back to Erza who was eyeing him analytically.

"What was that thing?" She asked as she took a step closer to him with the same look on her face.

"Oh, well… My employer called it an anomaly. Said they were dangerous and needed to be dealt with." Simon said nervously.

"Why haven't I heard of these before?" Another step forward.

"Bit of a recent development, apparently." Simon replied as he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. This conversation was turning into an impromptu interrogation. Hopefully he could give convincing answers without giving much away. Why was she getting so close?

"Why an independent contractor? Why not send this as an official guild request?" She was really close now with that look he was starting to find intimidating.

"N-not entirely sure. I think it's because I'm familiar with the one responsible for the anomalies. As to who that is… I'm not sure if you would be familiar with him but he is dangerous." Simon answered quickly with only a slight lie. He had no idea if he should or should not say something about the Lich. Erza was up in his face now as if she was trying to look into his soul for lies but after a few minutes she seemed relaxed.

"My apologies for the interrogation. It is a habit of mine to keep my guard up around strangers." She explained as she took a step back.

"It's…it's fine. Honestly a good policy to have." Simon waved off as Erza walked past him to the remains of the monster. "What are you doing?"

Simon's eyes went wide as Erza picked up the large horn of the monster and slung it over her shoulder effortlessly. The damn thing was as wide as she was tall not to mention at least three times her height.

"I need to bring proof that the job was completed back to the nearby village. Would you like to join me?" She asked with a kind smile.

Simon glanced at his phone's tracker app that informed him there were no anomalies in the area so…

"I suppose my work is done for the day so if you don't mind joining you then, sure."

Nearby Village

Simon and Erza had arrived at the nearby village not too long ago with a monster's horn in tow. The people had been extremely grateful to Erza for the monster's extermination. Some of that gratitude had transferred to him after Erza told the people of him assisting her. The village had insisted they throw a celebration for them to show their gratitude. At first Erza had turned down the offer but when the food had started coming she seemed more willing. Simon was confused at first why such a stern woman would give in so easily but seeing her stuffing her face with strawberry shortcake with the enthusiasm of a child made him understand. The two had been engaging in various conversations as the village was partying with the large horn as a sort of center peace.

"So you call your kind of magic The Knight?" Simon asked as he took a sip of the drink he had been offered. A tankard of some kind of beer.

"Yes, I made a point to absolutely master requip magic so that I may change out not only my weapons but also my armor quicker than one can draw a blade." Erza explained as she took another bite of cake.

"Fascinating." Simon said, impressed. He wanted to ask even more questions about her brand of magic but it sounded like this requip magic was not exactly a rare kind of magic, it was just how she used it that was special.

"What of your magic? I've never seen ice magic like yours before." A drunk villager was trying to get her attention now but she was ignoring him.

"What do you mean? Is ice magic uncommon here?" Simon asked.

"It's not that, it's the lightning. I've never seen a lightning bolt freeze something." Erza clarified. The drunk was getting belligerent.

"Oh that… not really sure. It's just how I've always done it really. Never had an interesting name for it either I'm afraid." Simon admitted sheepishly. The drunk was getting worse. Should he do something?

"That's surprising. Most name their magic if it is even slightly unique." The drunk was getting pissed now. Before Simon could say anything to the drunk man he slammed his fist onto the table knocking Erza's cake off the table.

"... Simon, would you excuse me for a moment. It seems our friend here has had too much to drink." With that her polite mask fell showing off a seething rage as she slammed her fist into the man's stomach, knocking him out before she dragged him off somewhere. Simon just sat there stunned by the about face until his phone started ringing. He heard the laughing of The Boss when he answered it.

"Hahahaha! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned am I right?" The Boss barked out.

"Um… I suppose." Simon said with an awkward chuckle. He had to wait for a bit for The Boss to stop laughing.

"Ok…ok… I'm good now. Anyway congratulations on your first successful job." He praised him.

"Thank you…sir. What should I do next?" Simon asked in a serious tone.

"Well your objective is unchanged. Kill Lich, stop anomalies. How you achieve that is largely up to you." The Boss sounded entirely unconcerned.

"So you can't give me a direction to start with?"

"Ahh… you want some guidance then. In my opinion you should join a wizards guild."

"A guild? Erza spoke about being part of one but why?"

"Independent contractors, as you put it, are not exactly normal here Simon. She found your independence suspicious right? That's going to be the norm around here. People won't trust you without being part of one. They may even turn you away if you try and help." The Boss explained.

"I see you need to be affiliated with a group to be trusted here then. Wait, you heard that? I thought you said you couldn't hear me." Simon asked incredulously as he remembered his earlier text.

"I couldn't. Not till you got rid of the anomaly. The closer you get to an anomaly the less I can see you or help you. You know that med kit I sent you? I was only able to give that to you after it went away."

"Can I expect that kind of assistance in the future?"

"Everyonce and a while. Can't keep watching you all the time after all. Anyway, getting back on topic. Join a guild and become important enough that people will seek out your assistance. It will make things easier on you, understand?"

"I believe so."

"Good. Now if you excuse me I have a couple thousand fires to put out. Some idiot thought it would be funny to introduce the concept of fire to a planet of gasoline people. Bye!" With that rather grim quote The Boss hung up.

"Join a guild then." Simon muttered to himself.

"You wish to join a guild now?" Simon jumped in surprise at Erza's sudden return.

"Um… yes. My employer contacted me a moment ago. He said it would be in my best interest if I joined a guild." Simon explained as Erza took her seat once more. She was giving him the same look she had given him during her interrogation.

"What about your current job?" Erza asked with a raised brow.

"I will continue my efforts to destroy the anomalies. Seems he believes if I join a guild it will help me achieve that goal." Simon explained as he finished his drink. "Erza this might seem forward but may I join your guild?"

"Why my guild specifically?" She asked skeptically.

"Well… honestly I'm not from around here. And though my employer has given me a direction I am still at somewhat of a loss on where to go. I've never been here and you were the first friendly face I've seen." He explained nervously.

Erza was silent for a bit before smiling. "I don't see why not."

"Wait really? No screening process or anything?" Simon asked, surprised. Erza simply shook her head.

"No nothing like that. You'll have to talk to the guild master about getting you registered but I doubt they would turn you down. Our guild has a habit of picking up lost souls." Erza explained casually as she began eating another slice of cake. Where did she get that?

"Well… um… thank you. Didn't expect it to be so easy." Simon noticed Erza holding out her hand to shake.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail. Fiore's number one guild, Simon."

"Number one? Guess I'll have to try not to embarrass such a great guild." Simon said with a good natured chuckle as he took the offered hand only to stifle a scream from Erza's powerful grip strength.

A/N: Sorry about the long wait everyone. Combination of writer's block and life got in the way of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review. I love to hear constructive criticism.