Chapter 9: Gajeel vs. Juvia
"Please. Let's end this," Juvia said, her voice steady and lacking any malice. "Despite what I said earlier… I don't want to fight you."
"Oh?" Gajeel tilted his head slightly. A sharp, battle-hungry grin stretched across his face. "That's fine by me."
The hallway groaned. It wasn't a simple sound, but a deep, tortured shriek of solid stone being violated from the inside. Metal screamed as thick support beams ripped themselves free from the walls. Pipes burst outward, the surrounding masonry fracturing as if the building itself were being flayed open.
Bolts snapped and concrete split as twisted shards of steel launched into the air, orbiting Gajeel like predatory satellites.
Juvia's eyes widened despite herself. 'I thought he only turned his own body into iron. Can he command external metal too?'
Gajeel rolled his shoulders, his arms spreading slightly as the hovering steel sharpened at his flanks. "Let me see what's stronger," he said, his voice low, eager, and dangerous. "My iron and metal… or your water."
A cold, silver-gray aura poured from his body. It didn't flare wildly; it was heavily compressed, like the suffocating air right before a massive structure collapses.
"So that's your magical aura…" Juvia murmured.
"Yeah," Gajeel replied, flexing his fingers.
The silver aura flowed down his arm like liquid mercury, condensing tightly around his right fist.
When a Mage's power overflows, it leaks out as sheer pressure—and the denser the magic, the heavier it feels to anyone standing in its radius. For an Iron Dragon Slayer, that pressure was absolute.
His grin sharpened to a razor edge. "Because there isn't an aura alive that's stronger than a dragon's!"
He drove his fist straight into the ground.
The resulting sound wasn't a standard boom. It was a concussive metallic detonation—like a cathedral bell forged from solid iron being struck head-on by a cannon.
The floor imploded. Cracks spider-webbed outward in violent, jagged patterns. The impact compressed the surrounding air so violently that it burst outward in a spiraling shockwave, ripping up floor tiles and blasting dust, stone, and powdered debris into the corridor in a suffocating storm. The entire hallway vanished beneath a roaring cloud of pulverized ruin.
Juvia's pupils narrowed to the width of needles. 'A smokescreen. He shattered the ground just to blind me. But he can't see through this either… Can he?'
Her thoughts raced through the haze. 'That aura around his fist… was it reinforcement? Did he just amplify his baseline physical strength with pure magic?'
Suddenly, the heavy dust shifted—a deliberate, sharp distortion in the haze.
Something tore violently through the smoke: a compressed chunk of jagged metal, spinning at high velocity like a sniper's bullet, ripping through the air straight toward her face.
With no hesitation whatsoever, her head dissolved. The projectile ripped cleanly through the liquid, scattering her facial features into an explosive spray of water that splashed harmlessly across the fractured floor. Before gravity could claim the droplets, another massive shape erupted from the smoke.
It wasn't a projectile this time—it was a full, iron-hard fist. It shot forward with savage precision, aiming straight for her sternum.
An instant before impact, her entire torso liquefied.
The metal arm punched completely through her center mass, bursting out the other side in a violent plume of water before continuing its momentum back into the thick dust cloud.
Water rained down against the stone in heavy droplets. The corridor echoed with the fading, high-pitched hum of vibrating steel. Then, the falling droplets trembled.
They didn't simply hit the ground; they responded to an internal pull. Each bead of water quivered, lifted, and drifted upward, defying gravity as they spiraled together midair. Reforming. Rebuilding.
Juvia's body reconstructed itself until she stood whole once more, water cascading smoothly off her shoulders. Her breathing remained steady.
"You still don't understand," she said calmly, wiping a stray strand of wet hair from her face. "As long as I become water…" Her eyes locked forward, piercing through the settling smoke. "…your attacks won't ever touch me. You can't break through water with brute force, Gajeel."
Closing her eyes, Juvia brought both hands to her chest, her fingers lightly interlacing.
'My magic draws moisture from the air… from plants… from the hidden breath between these very walls. I don't create water out of nothing. I gather it.'
The air in the corridor shifted instantly. The ambient humidity vanished as if inhaled by an unseen lung.
The corridor dried in a single second, the dust settling instantly and the stone losing its damp sheen. Wisps of visible vapor spiraled inward, drawn toward her open palm in tightening, violent currents. Above her hand, a clear, perfect sphere of water formed.
'I'm only harvesting what's already here.'
She lifted her hand. At first, the perfect sphere seemed completely harmless. Then, it began to shrink. Its diameter decreased while its mass and density skyrocketed. The surface tightened, growing glassy and mirror-like. Tremors rippled across its surface as layer after layer of liquid was forced violently inward, the pressure stacking to an impossible degree at its core.
The air around her hand warped faintly from the stress.
'Compress it further.' Her brow furrowed. 'Condense it to its limit.'
The sphere shrank to the size of a marble. It grew heavier and heavier until the space beneath her palm seemed to bend under the artificial weight.
Her eyes snapped open. "And now…" She released her control.
The sphere did not explode with flame. It unfolded. The compressed mass snapped back to its natural volume in a fraction of a second.
"Skywater Magic—" The release was a tidal detonation. "—Sky Exorcism!"
A massive blast of water erupted outward—a collapsing tide unleashed in every direction.
The hallway was completely swallowed whole as the surrounding walls were hammered by crushing, high-pressure waves. The fractured floor disappeared beneath a roaring, turbulent surge. Steel groaned as the floor shuddered.
Mist heavily saturated the air as water crashed violently into itself, rebounding off the ceiling.
The smoke and dust were erased beneath the flood. Within moments, the corridor had become a churning basin of deep water.
And floating lightly atop the surface, as if gravity had politely stepped aside for her presence, stood Juvia.
Her sharp blue eyes scanned the flooded ruin. 'Where is he? Did he get swept away by the current?'
She turned her head slowly, checking the area.
"Not bad, little one." An amused, arrogant voice drifted across the water. Juvia's gaze snapped upward.
There, perfectly balanced atop a curved lattice of metal that had risen from the wall like a forged perch, stood Gajeel.
He wore a sleeveless, light-toned top hanging loosely over his torso, with a thick, pale scarf wrapped around his neck that fell over one shoulder like a warrior's mantle. His exposed arms bore dark, flame-like markings curling upward from his forearms. His trousers flared slightly at the bottom, bold yellow-gold stripes cutting down the fabric as red flame motifs licked across his thighs.
"I'll give you credit," he said, a thin, cutting grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "An omnidirectional attack like that was clever. You cleared the smoke, taking away my visual advantage. And you tried to drown me in the exact same move." He let out a short huff of laughter. "Smart. Solid effort."
Juvia's face soured. "Don't call me little one," she snapped, holding up both hands with her fingers spread wide. "I'm eight years old!"
Gajeel rolled his eyes, resting a hand on his hip. "Should that impress me?" But inwardly, his thoughts turned sharp.
'She's younger than me… and her raw talent might actually exceed mine.' He remembered Metalicana's words from the lake. 'According to what the old man said, when a person refines their magic enough, they can turn directly into their element. I guess that means she has a water attribute. But is it really just water?'
His stare hardened into something deeply analytical, replaying their earlier exchanges.
'The way she dissolves right before impact… her magic might be a specialized variation. It gives her the illusion of turning into water, but there has to be a structural catch.'
Meanwhile, Juvia studied his stance just as closely. 'His physical strength is already monstrous, and he reinforces his muscles with magic. He's no fool when it comes to a real fight, either.'
The two child prodigies stared across the ruined, flooded corridor, their internal conclusions landing at the exact same time.
'She's a complete prodigy!' Gajeel thought.
'He's a literal monster in a child's body!' Juvia thought.
"That said—" A predatory grin carved its way across Gajeel's face—feral and unyielding. "There's no way in hell I'm losing to you."
Across from him, Juvia's expression didn't waver. Her gaze turned entirely still. "Even so… I cannot lose," her voice was calm, but a heavy weight sat beneath her words. "Not until I hunt down every single member of that clan."
The water around her feet rippled with her intent. She lifted her right hand. Tiny droplets gathered at her fingertips, trembling in midair as if synced to her pulse. With the slightest extension of her fingers, the droplets stretched. They thinned, sharpened, and instantly curved into vicious crescent shapes.
Scythe-like blades of highly pressurized water formed one by one, their honed edges shimmering like polished glass under the dim light. A faint, high-frequency hum filled the corridor as the liquid vibrated at a lethal density.
Gajeel moved first. He leaned forward, and the metallic structure beneath his boots bent to his will, launching him through the air like a guided projectile.
'If I fight her at a distance, she'll have the complete advantage. Range is her game,' he calculated, the wind tearing past his ears.
"Water Slicer," Juvia called out. The blades fired—carving forward in clean, surgical arcs.
"In that case…!"
Gajeel twisted midair. His body rotated smoothly, the first water blade grazing past his shoulder close enough to hiss against his fabric. The second passed directly under his arm. Behind him, the solid stone wall split open with a sharp hiss, a deep crescent gash etched into the rock like the clean mark of a guillotine.
"—I'll just come straight to you!" He surged forward, the metal screeching beneath his feet as he accelerated.
Juvia didn't waver, her eyes locked onto his approaching arms. 'He's not transforming his limbs into iron weapons? Why? Wouldn't that increase his striking power?'
He closed the distance in a heartbeat. His grin widened. Two sharp, blindingly fast jabs shot forward, clean and direct.
They passed straight through her face. Her head liquefied on impact, dispersing into a splash that reformed instantly behind his fists.
'My Iron Dragon's Club and Spear didn't do a damn thing to her earlier,' Gajeel thought, his reflexes driving his movements. 'I know how her body reacts now!'
Without hesitation, he clasped both hands together and brought them down in a crushing hammer strike. Her upper body dissolved again, water bursting outward in a heavy spray.
His eyes narrowed. This time, he watched the dispersion closely. Shedding from her liquid form with every heavy impact were tiny, scattered droplets that detached briefly before pulling back into her main shape.
'There it is!' His boots scraped against the metal beneath him as he rebalanced his weight. 'There has to be a physical limit to what her water body can dissipate and pull back together. If I can find that exact weakness, I win!'
He steadied his stance for half a breath. Unfortunately, against a prodigy, that half-breath was a fatal mistake.
Compressed water spiraled instantly into Juvia's open palm.
Gajeel's eyes widened. 'Crap! Another high-pressure sphere?!' He was too close to evade. Left with no choice, he crossed his forearms in front of his face. 'Doesn't matter. I'll just block it and—'
The sphere struck.
It didn't explode outward; it vibrated. A violent shockwave pulsed through his guard on contact—a compressed wave of pure force detonating straight through his defensive posture. The impact screamed up his forearms, metal grinding painfully against bone as his stance shattered completely.
His body jerked backward, tearing across the flooded corridor, skidding violently over the water's surface before slamming heavily into the far wall.
The collision pulverized the stone. The structure collapsed around his frame in a burst of fractured debris, and the displaced water crashed wildly against the rubble.
Juvia lowered her hand slowly. "I put significantly more magic into that one."
Gajeel shot up from the debris almost immediately, a manic grimace twisting across his face. "That was nothing!" he shouted, his voice wild with raw defiance. "I can still fight!"
He took one aggressive step forward, and his entire body stabbed back in retaliation. A sharp, burning pain ripped through his left arm like a jagged blade dragged across raw, exposed nerves.
"GRAAAAHHHH—DAMN IT!!" He staggered, clutching his left arm tightly.
Dark streaks of blood ran down his forearm, dripping steadily into the water-covered floor below. His teeth clenched together so hard they audibly creaked.
'My arm… was that wound from her water slicer earlier, or the pressure of that blast?' The pain pulsed again, sharp, hot, and angry.
"That looks painful," Juvia's voice came calmly through the mist. Her expression remained vacant as she slowly drifted across the flooded hallway.
The water beneath her feet didn't even ripple; she simply floated over it.
Gajeel glared through his messy hair. "You're using Floating Magic too?" he snapped, his breathing heavy. "How do you know multiple disciplines of magic at your age?"
Even he, trained directly by a dragon, only knew a single, absolute discipline. Yet she moved between different magical abilities as if it were routine.
Juvia tilted her head slightly. "It isn't particularly difficult when your talent is as great as mine," she said plainly, without an ounce of arrogance. "You shouldn't feel bad about your performance."
Her eyes studied his bleeding arm quietly.
"You're one of the stronger opponents I've fought. Even compared to adults… you and I far surpass most of the older generation." She descended lightly onto the surface of the water directly in front of him. Then, she extended an open hand. "You can't continue fighting with injuries like that. Let me help you."
Gajeel aggressively slapped her hand away with his uninjured right arm. "I don't need anyone's pity!" he roared, his crimson eyes blazing. "Don't start thinking you've already won this exchange. I'm just getting started."
He bent his head, caught a loose strip of cloth from his shirt with his teeth, and tore it free.
"After all…" He wrapped the fabric tightly around his bleeding forearm, yanking it taut with a sharp pull to stanch the bleeding. "…I'm a Dragon Slayer."
Juvia watched the makeshift bandage tighten around the wound. "Oh, I'm well aware of who you are." Her voice remained calm. "Gajeel Lionheart."
Gajeel's hands froze mid-knot. Slowly, his head lifted, his gaze locking onto her. "…What's that supposed to mean?"
"Master José has spoken about your potential many times," Juvia explained, her hands folding neatly behind her back. "He holds your raw strength in high regard. He told me quite a lot about you—including the fact that you are a Dragon Slayer."
"Well, naturally," Gajeel replied, letting out a rough scoff as he finished the knot. "The Master values strength above everything else. That's why this guild stands firmly at the top of the country."
Juvia continued as if she hadn't heard his boast. "…He also mentioned something else." Her blue eyes fixed on his face. "He said you're searching for a dragon with metal scales."
Gajeel's gaze sharpened instantly, all traces of childish competitive anger vanishing. "You mean Metalicana." The name came out low, heavy, and thick with hidden emotion. "What do you know about him…?"
"Nothing at all," Juvia immediately raised both hands in a calm gesture of surrender. "I truly know nothing about that dragon." She lowered them again, her focus intensifying. "But I am searching for a certain kind of person. And I was hoping… you might help me find them."
Gajeel's eyes narrowed. 'So that's it.' His thoughts sharpened quickly. 'She pretended she didn't want to fight from the very beginning. But that whole display—the magic, the pressure—she was just showing off her power so I'd respect her strength and answer her questions.'
A crooked, understanding grin slowly crept onto his face. 'She's smart… I'll give her that.'
"Have you ever heard of the Ebonveil Clan?" Juvia asked softly.
Gajeel's crimson eyes widened in shock. 'Ebonveil…?' His thoughts jolted violently as a single face crossed his mind. 'Isn't that Albion's family name?!'