Adventure Time X Fairy Tail

Chapter: 3 Through the Sewers pt.1

Disclamer: I do not own Adventure Time or Fairy Tail.

Simon was leaning against the horn of the monster by the exit to the village. The village had decorated the large horn with various jewels and gold during the night, giving it to Erza as a trophy. He wasn't one for hunting trophies, he had to admit it looked impressive. He was reading the guidebook app on his phone as he waited for Erza's arrival. Specifically looking up information on the city of Magnolia. A port town and the home of the Fairy Tail guild. Using it in conjunction with his GPS app he concluded that it would be a day or so of travel until they arrived. The hard part would be walking to the next town to get to the train station. He ideally rolled a coin across his fingers which was the local currency. Money was called jewels here and he had been awarded some by The Boss for a job well done on destroying the anomaly from the day before. He'd already used some of the cash to buy some supplies which he put in his inventory.

"Did you get everything you need, Simon?" Erza called out to him as she approached.

"Oh yes, the general store had everything… I needed." Simon paused after turning to face her. She was pulling a wagon, not a little red wagon but a massive wagon that looked like it would take a team of horses to pull, and it was piled high with luggage that looked like it could clothe a small army. She was pulling all this by herself like it was nothing. "... Did… Did you go shopping?" He asked, confused.

"Oh, yes I did." A sword appeared in her hand in a flash of light. "I went to the local blacksmith and had a sword of mine repaired. It snapped in half during the fight yesterday. A breastplate of mine caved in too but they couldn't fix it here."

"Anything else?" Simon asked as he glanced up at the giant pile of luggage.

"No, that's it. Why do you ask?" Erza asked as the sword disappeared in a flash of light.

"...no reason." He wasn't sure if this was some kind of prank but he wasn't going to engage with it. Erza picked up the decorated horn and balanced it on her shoulder. Once again treating the thing like it weighed nothing. "Do you want me to carry any of that? I should have enough room in my… inventory spell."

Erza just shook her head with an easy smile. "No need, I can manage just fine. Are you ready to go?"

Simon summoned a walking stick from his inventory and smiled back. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Oh, that won't be necessary. I've already gotten us transportation." Erza shook her head after eyeing his new walking stick.

"Oh? What's that?" Simon asked as he dismissed the walking stick. Before she could answer they overheard the roar of an engine.

"There it is," Erza said as the two of them turned to the sound.

"A truck?" Simon sounded a little caught off guard by what looked like a dull red pickup truck straight from the early 90s. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised considering his world but it had still surprised him due to the level of technology he'd seen so far.

The truck pulled up next to them and to Simon's surprise, the drunk man from the night before stepped out of the driver's seat. He had a comically large bump on his head and a black eye.

"H-hello again Miss. Scarlet. I rented out the magic mobile like you asked and even got a fully charged lacrima so you don't have to waste your magic." The man said nervously.

"Thank you, Tom. You're so generous." Erza smiled at the man as she placed the horn in the bed of the truck.

"Um… you didn't make Tom pay for this did you?" Simon asked as he watched Tom struggling to attach Erza's wagon to the truck.

"Of course not. After I gave him a stern talking to he informed me he was the manager of the local magic mobile rental. He was so sorry for his rude actions that he offered me a 50% discount." Erza explained happily. Simon glanced at the now named Tom who seemed to be walking away with a limp.

"A stern talking too…" Simon muttered as Erza hopped into the driver's seat.

"Have a good day Tom! Don't go drinking in excess again!" Erza waved at the retreating Tom who just started limping away faster. "Such a good man. Glad he learned his lesson. Hop in Simon."

Simon did as asked, trying not to think about the exploitation happening here.

Onibus Town

A few hours later they reached Onibus Town. They had planned to take the train that would lead them back to Magnolia. After returning the vehicle to the local retail place the two stopped at a pub for lunch. According to Erza, this pub was a common place for wizards to gather. The two were sitting at the bar having a meal.

"Wait. Your friend just makes it a habit to just… strip naked?" Simon asked incredulously as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Well, he stops at his boxers. So not completely naked." Erza replied before taking a sip of beer.

"Why? Is he a pervert?" Simon asked.

"No, nothing like that. He's never given me the full details but it's a habit he picked up from training his magic. He's an ice mage like you. He said that to adapt to the cold he would train in the snow in nothing but his underwear every day." Erza explained.

"Oh… I guess that makes some kind of sense but you'd think he'd try and break the habit."

"Oh, he's trying. I've been helping him with some gentle reminders." She said with a proud smile.

"... like with Tom?" Simon asked with narrowed eyes.

"Exactly," Erza replied as she gulped her drink. "So what about you, did you have a similar problem?"

"No, My magic wasn't something I needed to adapt to… well it's more so my magic adapted me," Simon said as thought about the nature of his magic.

"How so?" Erza asked curiously.

Simon removed his jacket before rolling up his sleeves. He'd been testing out how his magic affected his body the night before and made a few interesting discoveries about it. Sparks of blue lightning arced across his fingers and the Erza watched wide-eyed as his fingers turned blue. The blue coloration of his skin continued to work its way up his arm.

"It seems whenever I use my magic my internal body temperature drops. Yet it doesn't affect me… sort of." Simon explained.

"Sort of?" Erza's eyebrows were stitched together in concern.

"I… I can feel my blood freezing Erza. Yet it doesn't affect my ability to move or feel things. It doesn't even hurt and any pain I do feel is dulled by the cold. My heartbeat slows to one beat a minute and I don't need to breathe nearly as much. As soon as I stop using my magic it all goes back to normal. It's a rather unsettling experience." Simon admitted as he stopped using his magic and watched his arm return to its natural color.

"That is… rather unusual," Erza admitted being a little disturbed by the concept. "This feels a bit more complicated than simple ice magic. Does it do anything else to you?"

"Well… My hair turns white, my teeth become razor sharp, my nose becomes long, and I grow a beard for some reason."

"... why a beard?" Erza asked, confused about how all that linked together. Simon just shrugged. Before they could continue their conversation they were distracted by some loud shouting from one of the other tables.

"Hey! Hurry the hell up, bartender! I want my drink!" One of the men at the table shouted at the bartender.

"Calm down man." Another man said to the first.

"How am I supposed to do that?! We finally found Lullaby but we can't get to it because of a seal!" The first man said angrily.

"Keep your voice down." Said the third man.

"Don't worry guys, I'll take care of it. You all head back to the guild." A fourth man said confidently. He was dressed completely in white, with a black symbol on the back of his jacket and black hair.

"You sure Kageyama? Are you going to be fine on your own?" One of the other men said to the one in white. The now-identified Kageyama got up from his seat.

"You don't need to worry about me. Just tell Erigor I'll be back with Lullaby in three days, tops. See you all soon." Kageyama said to the other men before he left the pub.

"Rather rowdy people here aren't there?" Simon said to Erza after the table quieted down. He noticed that her face was set in a serious frown. "Something wrong?"

"Hmm? Oh. It's nothing, just thinking about something." Erza replied as she glanced at a clock over the bar. "Let's finish our meal. If we don't leave soon we will miss the train."

As the two were about to walk to the train station they heard someone call out to them.

"Excuse me, Miss Scarlet, correct?" The two turned and saw a rather well-dressed man with a nervous look on his face.

"Yes? Do you need something?" Erza asked the man. She was looking at the man like she was trying to place him.

"My name is Fuyona Wakiyaku. The mayor of Onibus town." The man was introduced with a polite bow.

Simon picked up on the Japanese in this man's name and automatically translated it into his head.

"His name is 'unnecessary side character'?" Simon thought to himself with a raised eyebrow. Erza's eyes widened in recognition.

"Ah, yes. We've met before, have we not?" Erza asked.

"Yes, I hired you for a job a few years ago, and that's actually why I'm here now. I would humbly request your services," Fuyona explained. "Would you follow me to the mayor's office?"

"Very well but may my friend come as well? He too is a skilled wizard." Erza requested. Fuyona looks over at Simon before simply giving a nod.

"He seems like a respectable fellow so I see no issues." With that, he motioned for them to follow him to the mayor's office. After a few minutes of walking the mayor's office came into view. At that moment Simon's phone went off. He checked it and saw a message.

"Warning: An anomalous entity has been detected but energy readings imply the entity is deceased. Still, proceed with caution." The message read.

"Erza. We may have a problem." Simon said as she showed her the message he received.

"An entity? Like the monster from yesterday?" Erza asked after reading the message. Simon nodded. "Should we be concerned? The message said it was dead."

"We may not need to worry about this entity but it implies there is another anomaly nearby."

"And it could easily make more monsters." Erza finished Simon's thoughts with a serious frown on her face. "Let's see if the mayor's issue and this anomaly are related before we do anything."

Simon nodded in agreement and continued towards the building.

Soon the two found themselves in the mayor's office. He was sitting behind his desk. With a nervous look on his face.

"So what is this about ?" Erza asked the man.

"Well, I supposed I should start at the beginning. A few days ago we had one of our routine inspections of the sewers. We had sent a few workers down there to check the integrity of everything." He began to explain. "Those men were attacked, some even killed."

"Attacked by what?" Simon asked.

"We are not entirely sure…" The mayor said as he rang a little bell on his desk. A moment later a man brought a gurney with a sheet covering something on the moving table. "One of the works happens to have a magic ring that lets him use some basic attack spells and killed one of the monster's before escaping with its corpse. We have yet to identify what it is exactly."

The man pulled back the sheet and revealed something rather unsettling. The creature resembled a rat but grotesquely mutated with bulging muscles on random parts of its body. It was as tall as the man pulling back the sheet, its mangy fur streaked with patches of blackened scaly skin. Its claws glowed with an ominous crimson glow even in death, and its tails were replaced with segmented, scorpion-like stingers. Its three eyes, unnervingly human in appearance, stared blankly into the void, its central eye a bright red.

"To make matters worse there are a lot more of these things down there. We know because not long after the workers escaped more rats tried to escape the sewer to attack people. No one was injured luckily but we hired a local wizard who specialized in barrier spells and quickly had him seal off any exits the monsters could use. Specially made so things can go in but can't come out. Not even sound can escape the sewers without approval."

Simon looked at his phone to let him know that this was the entity it had detected earlier. He gave Erza a nod that this was the monster they were after.

"Did your workers report anything else strange?" Simon asked.

"Not really, no. Just these rat monsters that have infested our sewers." The mayor explained.

"So you want us to exterminate them? This will need to be an official request, you know." Erza said as she crossed her arms.

"Yes, and I am aware. I had just finished the paperwork to send an official job request but then I was informed that you were in the city. I was hoping the strongest woman in Fairy Tail would be able to help deal with the problem." The mayor explained as he pulled out a job flier that had yet to be sent out. The price for the extermination was rather high, 10,000 jewels.

"What do you think Simon?" Erza asked as she glanced at him.

"I'd be willing to help even if the price was lower," Simon replied. Erza gave an approving nod.

"We will take the job then," Erza said confidently. Fuyona just sighed in relief.

"Thank You. It will be a relief to have this problem dealt with so quickly. There is a manhole cover in the basement that is under guard so you may enter without issue and here's a map of the sewers." He said as he handed Erza a folded map.

A few minutes later Simon and Erza stood over the manhole cover the mayor had spoken about. Guards were standing around the room with weapons in hand, they did not do anything to stop the two. Simon wrinkled his nose as he stowed his phone.

"Well, this is going to be… fun." He muttered, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Come now Simon this won't be the worst thing in the world. When I first joined the guild as a kid I would have to take simpler jobs like kill alligators that infested the sewers." She explained casually as she lifted the heavy cover as if it weighed no more than a dinner plate.

"How old were you when you took that job?" Simon asked as he changed out his shoes for some waterproof boots he had parched back at the village. The former king of ice didn't think he would be using them so soon.

"Twelve," Erza said before just jumping down the hole not even bothering to use the ladder.

"Of course you were," Simon muttered as she disappeared into the dark hole before following her down using the ladder. As he descended he heard two things at once. Erza using her magic.

"Requip: Sewer Explorer Armor."

And then his phone went off.

"Warning! Anomaly detected! Please dispatch at once!"

When Simon reached the bottom he found Erza waiting for him in a new outfit. She was wearing a bright yellow, rubber full-body suit. The Fairy Tail guild mark on the back and right breast. Her hair was tied up and hidden under a hard hat with a light on it.

"Can that be considered armor?" Simon asked skeptically. Erza tapped her fist against her chest and heard the jingle of metal.

"I'm wearing chainmail under this." Erza pointed out.

"Fair enough," Simon said with a shrug as he raised his arm and lightning began to spark on the tip of his finger. He focused for a moment until the lightning became a blue flame that lit up the sewer in its blue light. The sewer was surprisingly spacious, with high arched ceilings lined with moss and cracked stone. The damp walls glistened under the blue light, water dripping rhythmically into the dark stream below. The walkways on either side of the canal were made of worn stone, slick with moisture and algae, that would make every step a cautious endeavor. The faint hum of running water echoed around them, interspersed with the occasional distant sound of a rodent skittering or a splash.

"You make fire as well?" Erza asked, confused.

"Cold fire," Simon explained as he let the blue flames lick the damp wall. Frost spread to form crystalline patterns, the sound of ice forming echoing slightly through the sewer.

"Your magic is stretching the limit of what is considered ice magic," Erza said as she turned on her headlamp. Simon just shrugged before he pulled his phone back out to check the tracker.

"You heard the announcement from my tracker correct?" He asked as he looked at the tracker. It was pointing down and at an angle. Erza nodded in response.

"It seemed to go off as soon as we were past the barrier. Do you think it blocked your tracker?" Erza asked as she looked over his shoulder

"As good of a reason as any but it seems this isn't going to be as useful underground. Do you know your way down here?" He asked but Erza shook her head.

"Afraid not, it's been years since I was last down here but that's why we have the map," Erza explained before Simon's phone went off again.

"Warning multiple anonymous entities detected proceed with caution." The phone announced.

"More monsters?" Erza asked.

"Yep. Wish this thing could tell us where the monsters themselves were. Let's keep our guard up." Simon replied.

The two walked through the underground maze that was the sewer ready for anything. After a few minutes of walking Erza suddenly became tense and a sword flashed into her hand.

"What's wro-!" Simon's question was cut off when she grabbed him by his shirt and yanked him towards her. Just narrowly avoiding a beam of red energy that shot out from the dark. Acting just as quickly as before she threw her weapon in the direction the beam originated. They heard the sound of the blade sinking into flesh and an inhuman screech of pain.

"You alright Simon?" Erza asked as she righted his poster.

"Fine, thank you," Simon said as he readjusted his glasses that had almost fallen off his face from the yank. "Did you get what shot at us?"

Erza walked a little deeper until her headlamp illuminated something rather gruesome. It was the same rat-like monster from the surface, its central eye glowing faintly red as though still brimming with residual energy. Erza's sword stuck out of its head as it lay on its belly, dead.

"Easier than the last one." Erza huffed as she pulled her sword free from the corpse.

"Seems the entities have a range of difficulty then. The first one I saw was killed with a giant fly swatter." Simon said as he looked over the corpse. Erza gave him a puzzled look.

"A fly swatter?" Erza asked, confused. "I suppose it's not the strangest thing in the world. I've heard of a mercenary that uses a magic frying pan to fight."

Simon was tempted to ask more but chose to focus on the task at hand. "It might have been easy but remember there are multiple down here so keep your guard… Erza behind you!" Simon shouted as he saw multiple dots of red light.

Erza swerved around and her body lit up as Requiped into her Adamantine Armor. She slammed her shields together and blocked multiple beams of energy. Simon was relieved at her quick actions before aiming at where he thought the rats were.

"Frost Shot!"

Simon repeatedly fired bolts of blue lightning striking the rats, using the brief light-up of the tunnel to line up the next shot. Quickly as they appeared the six rats were frozen in blocks of ice. Simon frowned a little as he noticed that the rats hadn't tried to run but seemed to just rush at them. It's like they were more interested in killing Erza and himself than in survival.

"Excellent work Simon." Erza congratulated him by clapping him on the back. The hit nearly knocked him off his feet.

"Thanks." He said as he ignored the sting of the clap but after a moment he heard more rats coming from both directions. "You hear that?"

"Yes, keep your guard up," Erza said as she changed her armor into her Heaven's Wheel armor. The two stood back to back. Blue lightning sparked along Simon's hands as Erza summoned several floating swords. Then came the tide of giant rats that came from either side of the hallway.

"I think multiple entities are under-selling what we're seeing here!" Simon said obvious fear in his voice at the sheer numbers he was seeing. Erza for her part kept her composer.

"I have your back If you have mine," Erza said sternly. The confidence in Erza's voice calmed Simon a bit as Erza's swords began to glow with power.

"I- I won't run if you don't," Simon replied as he raised his hands over his head as the lightning grew brighter. As the rats closed the distance the two fired their spells.

"Blumenblatt!"

"Force of Blizzard!"

Kageyama's Location

"What the fuck!" Kageyama growled annoyed as he stared down at the corpses of the rat monsters he had just slain. He'd been caught off guard when these things came rushing at him from around the bend, firing beams of searing red energy from their third eyes. Luckily, he managed to get a shield up before they hit him.

"Those guys said they cleared the path. Where did these things come from?" Kageyama muttered to himself. "Hell. What even are these things?"

SCREEE!

Kageyama immediately acted upon hearing the screech coming from behind. He suddenly dropped like the floor was yanked from underneath into his shadow as another rat monster lunged and missed tackling him. As soon as the monster passed him he lunged back out of his own shadow with his fist covered in shadow.

"Shadow Knuckle!"

Kageyama slammed his fist into the rat's underside, knocking it into the ceiling. The sound of the monster's spine breaking could be heard before it landed on the ground again, dead. Kageyama spat on the corpse in aggravation.

"Damn monster I don't have time for this. I have to get to Lullaby and unseal it. I gave myself three days because I wanted to take my time." Kageyama heard more rats approaching. "I might just need to clear out all these things to safely dispel the seal. Damn it Erigor is going to be pissed if I'm late!"

Kageyama could see the rats coming even in total darkness. His shadow magic gave him the passive ability to see in the dark so he was ready. His shadow began to glow with purple energy and tendrils of darkness sprung forth and rushed to hit the oncoming enemies.

"Shadow Grasp!"

The shadows twisted together into a giant hand and grabbed several of the rats before slamming them onto the rest. He kept moving forward, occasionally having to kill more of the rat monsters as he continued his way to the Lullaby location.

After some time he reached a rather large chamber of the sewers that was more of a large pit where all the sewage would drain into. His eyebrows stitched together in confusion as he looked at something at the top of the chamber. A floating, purple, sphere that sparked with red electricity.

"The hell is that-!?" He was cut off when the bottom of the pit began to glow red. His eyes went wide as he looked down at the bottom of the pit. A swarm of rat monsters were at the bottom all crawling across each other like you would find in a regular rat nest. And all of them had their eyes glowing red, ready to fire their lasers at him. Kageyama immediately dropped into his shadow right as the rats all fired upon him. Moving much faster in his shadow he managed to back up far enough to avoid the multiple laser beams. He immediately got out of his shadow and prepared one of his best moves as the rats began to swarm into the tunnel.

"Shadow Orochi!"

He slapped his hand to the ground creating a purple magic circle. Several dozen snakes made of shadow lunged out of his shadow towards the approaching rats and went for their necks. Many of the rats died after the first bite and the snakes kept going killing one after another. It was the beauty of this spell that it didn't stop until the selected target was destroyed and he selected all these rats.

"HA! This is why you don't mess with an Eisenwald wizard!" Kageyama smirked confidently as his spell slayed the monster's mass. Maybe it was stupid to brag that to a bunch of mindless monsters that he was killing but he took a lot of pride in being part of Eisenwald.

Unfortunately, after about a minute he realized that the rats were still showing no signs of stopping. He knew he couldn't keep this up forever either as this was using us a good chunk of his magic. To make matters worse the rats were catching on and started attacking the snakes, destroying them and it cost energy to create more.

Suddenly he felt the ground begin to rumble as his spell ripped through the rats. Something far bigger than the rats peeked into the tunnel. Its many large eyes glowed with red energy as they glared at him with obvious malice. He stared eyes wide and only acted again when he realized the eyes were growing brighter. Realizing what was most likely about to happen he adjusted the target to the larger monster. The snakes lunged for its eyes. Before the snakes could reach the bigger monster…

BOOM!

…each eye fired a beam of red energy which flooded the tunnel with red light and what sounded like a roaring flame.

Kageyama immediately dropped into his shadow, but unfortunately one of the beams managed to hit him in the shoulder before he was fully inside. He immediately rushed away, moving faster than he'd ever moved in his life. Whatever that thing was, it demolished his best move and he knew he had to retreat. Even inside his shadow, he could hear more rats rushing after him. He doubted these things and actually knew he was in his shadow and was just running about looking for him. He needed to retreat, for now, and think of a plan, after all, failure wasn't an option for him.

Soon he found himself under the manhole he'd entered from and pulled himself free from his shadow as he clutched his shoulder. It wasn't bleeding much, the flesh was mostly scorched. Nothing he couldn't recover from. He glanced over his shoulder hearing the distant patterning of feet. Most likely more rats.

"Fuck this. I'll go back to the guild and grab the guys to help me." He muttered and was about to make his way up the ladder but he paused when he felt a cold breeze on his neck. It caused him to stop in his tracks. The breeze made him think of Erigor, his guild leader. "If I leave now I'll need to let Erigor know I failed… that I failed to get Lullaby in the time limit I gave."

Kageyama was shivering as he thought of failing and what The Reaper of Eisenwald does to those who don't do what is required of them. He shook his head and turned back to the sewers.

"Eisenwald wizards aren't failures." He muttered angrily to himself as he used his shadow magic to make bandages for his shoulder. He noticed a few of the rats rushing down the tunnel towards him, their third eyes glowing. His shadow lit up with a purple magic circle.

"Shadow Knuckle!"

Several fists launched forward, pummeling the first few rats he saw. Several more rushed around the corner firing their eye beams. He dropped into his shadow again before rushing them the rats continued to try to hit the approaching shadow but managed to zig-zag his way through the attacks. Once he was under one of the rats he pulled the rat into the shadow. He zipped up the side wall, avoiding more lasers until he was above the next rat. He dropped from the ceiling the previous rat underfoot and landed on top of the two. Five more rats lunged at him as he stood atop the corpses of their fellow rats.

"Shadow Guard…"

The rats crashed against a dome of shadows.

"Burst!"

The tendrils of shadow that made up his dome came apart before slamming into the rats crushing them against the walls. He jumped off the rats and into his shadow once more rushing deeper into the sewer until he reached a large open chamber. He was about to rush down the path he had run from earlier but stopped. His head peaked out of his shade and he glared down the tunnel. He could see the many eyes glowing at the other end of the tunnel. It was like whatever it was just waiting for the chance to attack. He darted back into cover before getting out of his shadow.

"Need to play this smart," Kageyama muttered as he prepared his spell. Normally he would just have his favorite spell rush at his target but it was obvious that the thing was just going to fire its lasers the second it saw movement. So instead he'd have his snakes sneak through the murky water.

"Shadow Orochi."

His shadow snakes dipped into the water before making their way undetected toward the many-eyed thing. The monster seemed ignorant as its many eyes darted around the tunnel. The snakes inched closer to it before they were finally in striking distance. Kageyama grinned as he flooded his spell with power, the entire length of the snakes glowed with power before lunging at the monster's multiple eyes. The monster didn't have time to react and the snakes bit into the eyes. Blood gushed from the points of impact as the monster roared in agony. The tunnel shook with the sound.

Kageyama grinned in victory as he looked down the tunnel at the injured monster, its wounds letting out a stream of blood. That grin slowly faded as he watched something that made no sense to him even if magic was involved. More of the rats were forming from the bigger monster's blood. Mear moments after its blood splashed on the ground it would form into a rat monster. It was like each drop resulted in a brand new rat that began rushing down the tunnel toward him. It wasn't long before a fresh army of rats was running at him and he knew damn well that his Shadow Orochi spell wouldn't be enough for the coming tide.

Kageyama immediately tried to dive back into his shadow to retreat and come up with a new plan but wasn't able to. He felt teeth sink into his shoulder as he was knocked to the ground. A rat had gotten on top of him. As soon as he hit the ground he sunk into his shadow dragging the rat into it with him. The shadow immediately darted to the ceiling avoiding the rat tide. He managed to kick the rat that had gotten on top of him out of his shadow unfortunately the rats below spotted him as the first rat fell. The army fired a myriad of lasers at him. He tries his best to dodge and weave around the multiple attacks but he inevitably got hit especially since he was just on the ceiling. His eyes darted around the area desperate for an escape then he spotted it at the top of this room a sewer grate that could lead outside. He made a break for it. His shadow form lunged for the escape as more lasers pelted him.

Flash!

A magic circle appeared just as he was about to escape, pushing him out of his shadow and knocking him back down to the floor.

"A barrier? Why is there a barrier?!" He screamed internally as he fell towards the rats. Time seemed to slow for him as he fell towards his obvious doom. "Why? Why am I going to die here? That's obvious we wanted to make other guilds pay for making us a dark guild! We needed Lullaby for that… but… it was the magic council that made us a dark guild. Why aren't we going after them?"

As Kageyama thought these traitorous thoughts, anger began to build within himself. He glared down at the swarm of rat monsters.

"When the magic council made assassination requests illegal six years ago, Erigor was pissed. He didn't want to stop… so he didn't. He just took them under the table." As he fell towards the rats he clapped his hands together as a large magic circle appeared behind him.

"Eventually he took a job that made him kill some rich noble. That caught the attention of the council. They couldn't prove it was Erigor but they knew he was still taking assassination requests. So they shut us down." Shadows warped around him as he glared down at the monsters. He rarely had a chance to use this spell because it left him vulnerable after use.

"We didn't want to disband so we became a dark guild. Erigor was still pissed and wanted revenge against anyone he could. He wanted Lullaby to kill all the leaders of official guilds." He was now wrapped in a cocoon of shadow and landed unceremoniously on the floor. The rats swarmed the cocoon biting and clawing at it.

"I'm going to die here because Erigor wanted to keep killing."

"Shadow Cobra!"

The cocoon of shadows exploded, knocking back the rats. The shadows twisted and curved until they took the form of a giant king cobra. Its eyes glowed purple as it glared down at the rats. The Japanese symbol for shadow glowing on its hood. The rats fired off lasers at the towering snake but they did nothing to it. The cobra let out a loud hiss as it opened its mouth full of glowing purple fangs before lunging down and biting down on several rats. The snake whipped around its tail and hit a wave of the monster's into the wall. The rats tried to swarm the giant snake trying to bite or sting it with their scorpion tails, but none of it got through the shadow scales. The snake opened its mouth wide and a magic circle appeared there. Black smoke shot out of its mouth, the smoke crashing into the rats like a hammer. This went on for a while, snapping jaws, whipping tails, and crushing smoke, killing rats by the dozens with each attack.

When the rats finally stopped coming the room was a bloody mess of dead rats. The cobra stilled as the final rat died and glared down the tunnel they had been coming from.

It could see the many-eyed monster glaring at it from the other end. It was ready to continue this bloody conflict, to destroy that thing and the multi eye thing seemed ready to meet the challenge. It fired multiple lasers at the cobra striking it. Unlike the rats thes lasers hurt the cobra but it only hissed in rage and rushed down the tunnel towards the monster.

The giant cobra had nowhere to doge as it surged down the tunnel as he was half as big as the tunnel so it just took the blasts to its head. Growing more and more angry at the many eyed thing with each hit. When it realized that the cobra wasn't stopping the many eyed monster decided maybe it was time to back up from the pissed off snake but by that time it was too late. The cobra lunged out of the tunnel at the thing and bit down hard on whatever it could. The monster screeched in pain as blood filled the cobras mouth which quickly became more rats. The shadow cobra tried to bite down harder to kill the rats but snakes aren't exactly known for their ability to chew so eventually the snake was forced to let go. The monster moved back once released from the cobras bite. This gave the cobra the chance to actually see what he was fighting.

Surprise, surprise the boss stuck to the theme of rats. What the cobra had bitten down on was a giant rat covered in red glowing eyes that resembled its smaller counterparts. That wasn't the end though as this giant rat was attached to ten other similar rats by the tail.

"A… rat… king?" Was Kageyama's barely conscious thought from within the shadow cobra. His mind was more 'pissed off snake' than man right now. The cobra reared back its head and fired more black smoke that crashed against the rat king. It screeched in pain before firing many lasers back. The cobra tried to doge but there were too many shots to avoid. In the end the cobra chose to just lunge at one of the rats of the rat king.

The rat king was surprisingly coordinated and jumped back to avoid the bite. The rat the cobra tried to bite ended up biting the cobra with its glow red teeth. The cobra surrendered the bit of itself that the rat king had bitten just so it could bite down on the things neck. The rat screeched again as the cobra began to inject shadow magic into the rat king like venom. Perhaps that would work better than just biting it and it was working. The shadows clogged its veins so it couldn't be bleed to make more small rats to harass the cobra. The other part of the rat king didn't take this lying down so they responded by jumping the cobra biting down on the shadowy flesh despite trying to kill its foe. The cobra lashed around trying to knock them off but it wasn't working.

"Shadow… Knuckle."

The name of the spell came out strained but it worked still as several shadow fists shot out of the cobras body trying to pumble the rat king. They were hurting the rat king but it wasn't enough force to knock the giant rats off of the cobra. The cobra finally decided to let go so it could properly lash around to get the rest of the rat king off of it. After a few moments of lashing out the shadow cobra managed to knock the rat king off of it. The two pushed away from each other. The two monsters eyeing each other angrily. As the cobra raised up and fanned out its hood and hissed as purple energy glowed along its fangs. In response all of the rat king's eyes lit up again. The Shadow cobra immediately dropped to the ground before it lunged at the rat king. It bit down hard on the rat it caught, this time pumping more shadows into the rat. Kageyama forced the shows within the rat to lash out within the beast. The rat screamed in pain as its insides were shredded. Finally this part of the king seemed to die. The rest of the rat king kept moving through.

The rest of the rats jumped on the cobra again but noticed one of the rats biting on the dead rat's tail. The cobra didn't have the time to focus on that as the rats tore at its shadow flesh.

"Shadow… Spike."

Several spikes shot of the snakes hide hitting the rat king. More blood, more rats but the rat king jumped off and to the snakes surprise the rat king ran. It forced it self down one of the bigger tunnels just barely squeezing through.

The cobra was about to pursue it when it realized that the dead part of the rat king that had separated from the rest was glowing with red energy. It was rapidly inflating like a balloon.

"Going…to… explode."

The giant cobra immediately tried to back away, dive into another tunnel, anything to escape the coming explosion. Sadly it wasn't fast enough. The rat exploded with a powerful shock wave of red energy that slammed the snake into the wall with such force it formed an impact crater. The entire room shook violently from the blast causing some of the wall to cave in burying the cobra in stone.

The stone moved aside and the snake slowly pulled itself free from the ruble. That impact left the cobra extremely damaged and didn't have the energy to fix it. The magic that fueled it ran out and began to fade away. Kageyama collapsed to his knees as soon as the cobra form fell apart. He could already feel the backlash of using such a powerful spell hitting him. He couldn't move, forced to kneel in the pool of rat blood, totally ruining his white clothing. He glared around the room and saw more rats sneaking out from whatever hiding place they had been in. It wasn't the tide of rats like before but enough to be considered a squad. The rats slowly approached him wondering if he was going to fight back. Once they realized that Kageyama didn't have the strength to keep going they approached him and they all looked down at him, their eyes alight with power.

"Get it over with you damn rodents." He muttered in a horse voice.

Just as he thought it was all over, a powerful gust of wind rushed out from one of the tunnels, pushing back the rat monsters. He saw the gleam of a large blade quickly slash through the rats. As his vision darkened, he saw a figure with white hair flying over all the rats, wind whipping about him only vaguely aware of the cold.

"E- Erigor?" It was all he got out before he passed out.

A/N: I got this one out a lot faster, didn't I? Anyway, this chapter was to set up the Lullaby arc and to improve Kageyama. Why am I focusing on a character that got redeemed in the first arc and was never heard from again? I'm a sucker for people with shadow-bassed powers. That's why I gave him a cool spell he didn't have in the anime or manga. So tell me what you think of it. Anyway, the next chapter is going to come out just as fast as this one hopefully.

Please review. I'd love to hear some constructive criticism.