While Chase and Mira were casually camping and chatting, Lucy having finished her chat had already entered battle mode.
"Open! Gate of Taurus, Taurus!"
The Golden Key spun between her fingers. A cool magic circle bloomed.
"Moo! Lucy's got an amazing body~!"
Taurus emerged from the ground, double-edged ax in hand. His first words were praise for his master's figure.
Taking in the situation, his heart-eyed expression grew even more excited as he added, "Mira and Erza and that big-sister with the sword too when can you go on a date with me?~!"
As for Chase, the pervy bull completely ignored him.
"Ara ara." Mira covered her mouth with a light laugh.
"I didn't call you out for something that impossible!"
Lucy, feeling embarrassed as his master, pointed across at Vidaldus. "Go! Take down that enemy!"
"Moo! With pleasure!"
Seeing that the opponent was some inhuman freak, Taurus raised his muscular arms, swung his axe, and charged without hesitation.
"Sending such a weak woman to fight me? Don't underestimate the power of rock music, you bastards!"
Vidaldus immediately recognized Lucy as a Celestial Spirit wizard. He shook his head back and forth wildly.
SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH.
His disgusting dark hair elongated and spread like wildly growing roots, reaching straight for the charging Taurus.
Without any evasive movement, the reckless Taurus simply raised his ax and swung. The sharp double-edged ax, driven by brute force, kicked up gusts of wind.
The momentum was strong, but against the flexible, tough hair, it didn't do much.
After several exchanges, not only had Taurus failed to gain the upper hand, but Vidaldus seized an opportunity and tightly entangled him with his hair. Taurus's double-edged ax clattered to the ground!
"Damn it! Why is this hair so annoying?!"
Taurus struggled with all his might, but the hair only tightened.
Seeing this, Lucy showed no panic. A knowing smile curled at the corner of her lips.
She had been waiting for this moment!
"Gate of Taurus, close! And then —"
"Open! Gate of Cancer, Cancer!"
DING DONG!
The Celestial Spirit magic circle lit up. Before the light on Taurus's body had even completely dissipated, a sunglasses-wearing man in trendy clothes, with six red crab legs on his back, made his debut.
Cancer spun the scissors in his hand and charged along the length of Vidaldus's hair before he could retract it. He was fast.
"Oh no! Damn it!" Vidaldus was surprised. He instinctively protected his most important points.
But Cancer's target as a barber (not) was elsewhere.
SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH.
A cold gleam flashed in the dark. Vidaldus felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He had been shaved bald.
"Is this the latest trendy hairstyle to your satisfaction, ebi~?"
Cancer put away his scissors and struck a cool pose.
"Beautifully done, Cancer! The haircut plan is a complete success!" Lucy happily gave a thumbs-up.
That's right. Having seen Vidaldus's magic before, she had been aiming for his hair from the very beginning!
"Using Taurus as bait, then having Cancer catch him off guard and cut off that troublesome hair..."
Mira picked up a potato chip and put it in her mouth, sounding a bit surprised. "I didn't expect Lucy to have such a good battle sense~"
"And her gate-switching movements and gaps are much smoother and faster than before," Chase noted, noticing the finer details.
She had only had the Dark Magician Training Guide for a few days, yet the effect was already this obvious.
Truly a gifted Celestial Spirit wizard inheriting the Heartfilia bloodline...
"But Erza seems to be having a tough time over there," Mira said, turning to look at the other battlefield.
Blade light and sword shadows flashed continuously there. Every time a slash flew out, the ground would split with a clean, flat crack.
Against Ikaruga's extremely sharp Mūgetsu-ryū swordsmanship, Erza's armor was as fragile as paper. Even when she brought out her strongest defensive armor, Adamantine Armor, it couldn't withstand the woman's slashes!
Erza's expression looked very dignified.
When the hard armor she used to cover her inner fragility proved useless, the panic and fear buried deep in her memories would breed, until a sense of insecurity spread throughout her body.
Regardless of the current "difficult situation," this was a psychological trauma left over from when she escaped the Tower of Heaven.
"What's wrong, Fairy Queen? If this is all you have, you're no match for this one at all."
After one-sidedly dominating the fight, Ikaruga regained her confidence. Not all of Fairy Tail's S-Class wizards are monsters like Chase.
As long as Chase continues to foolishly stand by and watch like this, once I take down Erza, I'll have leverage to negotiate!
This is my only hope of breaking out!
Sharing the same thought was Vidaldus, now wildly swinging his bald head to the screeching guitar sounds.
Beside him, Cancer was resting his hands on his knees, doing the same head-swinging motion, shouting "Hell~ ebi~ Hell~ ebi~" to the rock beat.
The entire scene was quite painful to look at.
Originally, Vidaldus had tried to use "Rock Sandman" to control Lucy directly.
But unexpectedly, Lucy had cunningly hidden inside the independent space of Horologium.
"Last time on Galuna Island too why am I so unlucky? I always run into these control-type wizards! she says."
Horologium raised its slender arm, relaying Lucy's complaints.
Remembering her previous tactic of "redirecting disaster," Lucy curled up inside the clock and instinctively glanced toward Chase.
Chase, who had been chatting with Mira about Juvia, sensed her gaze and silently sealed the gap in the barrier.
Since this was a test of her training, how could he let Lucy take shortcuts again?
"S-So mean! she says."
Horologium glanced at the berserk Cancer charging toward them and said calmly, "Um, Lucy-sama, Cancer is already attacking."
"Then run for it already! she says."
"You don't need to relay my words at a time like this! she says."
"The scissors! The scissors are coming, ahhh! she says."
"Buy me some time! I'll forcibly close Cancer's gate! she says."
Horologium ran everywhere with Lucy inside, while also faithfully relaying her terrified shouts.
Truly a dedicated spirit.
After several close calls, Horologium not being a combat-type spirit was ultimately hit by Cancer's scissors and vanished with a poof.
Lucy, left unprotected, was thrown out and landed with a thud in a muddy puddle.
Ignoring her instantly soaked clothes, Lucy sat in the muddy water, raised her Cancer key, mobilized all her magic power, and shouted, "Close! Gate of Cancer!"
HUM!
In the split second before Cancer's scissors reached her, the golden magic circle successfully activated, sending him back to the Celestial Spirit World.
"Damn, damn, damn! Why couldn't he shave my head clean before leaving?!" Bald Vidaldus was extremely angry.
Losing the hair he could wild swing seemed to have dealt him a huge blow. So much so that now, all he could think about was getting revenge on Lucy.
"Sorry, but Cancer only gives me beautiful hairstyles!"
Lucy touched the water. She had a sudden idea.
"Then I'll do it myself! I'll pull out every single strand of your hair!"
Vidaldus moved forward step by step, looking angry.
"Don't even think about it!"
Lucy threw her golden key into the muddy water. "Open! Gate of Aquarius! Aquarius!!"
"Useless, useless, useless. No matter what spirit you summon, they'll just become my puppets!"
Vidaldus used the same trick again, directing his rock sound waves at Aquarius, who had emerged from the muddy water.
And then—
"How dare you summon me from a place like that?! Even without you damn bald bastard ordering me, I'll send that brat flying!!"
Aquarius, now under control, raised her water bottle with a vicious expression. "Aqua Storm!!"
WHOOSH! CRASH!
The torrent of water erupted violently, indiscriminately sweeping up both Lucy and the bald Vidaldus, snapping the surrounding trees.
Its range was so wide that even Chase and Mira, camping in the distance, and Erza and Ikaruga were affected!
***
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