Chapter 31 - More people joining the guild, Training and a new spell!

After the little spar me and Erza had that day we decided to start doing a sort of daily routine.

I would do my morning chores and exercises, spend some time at the guildhall with whoever may be there in the morning and then go to the forest with Erza in the afternoon to train.

Over the course of about three days she grasped the technique of absorbing ethernano while training, boosting her improvement speed up a notch by allot!

That's quite fast I'ma be honest... As expected of Erza I guess...

I myself have been working on combining multiple spells into one. While I have done it before on some occasions, this time I'm attempting a few more... specific spells...

Ones that proved harder to combine...

I can make the spells with ease, but having them enter a state of equilibrium proved quite difficult.

...

The following week, Gray and Cana got interested in what we were doing so they decided to ask right as we were about to leave.

"What have you two been up to together? Could it be..." Cana asked with a mischievous smile.

"We're training." Erza replied, shutting down whatever expectations Cana had.

"Boo! Boring!" Cana said, pouting at the table.

"So you've been training together? I want in on that!" Gray said, clenching his fist.

Someone want's to get stronger huh...

"Mmmm... Count me in!" Cana said after pondering on it for a moment.

"Hmm." I started to ponder over having them join us.

"Hey, hey don't just forget about us here." Ultear said, walking up to us with Lyon in tow.

"If you're all going to be training then I'm most certainly participating!" Lyon said enthusiastically.

Okay now we're a group! Sweet.

"Alright, alright! You can all come along... Sheesh. Just don't start whining if it gets too hard." I said, opening a gate leading towards the forest right outside Magnolia.

After everyone walked through, I closed the gate and started explaining to them what we've been doing.

About the ethernano absorbtion method, and our excercises themselves.

unsurprisingly no one was able to use the method immediately, well, no one but Cana...

She apparently had an easier time doing physical training and absorbing than the normal meditation method!

Basically she was just like Yuri Dreyar, a natural.

It surprised me initially, but thinking of all the training she's done with Gildarts it made sense.

The Martial arts she's been learning from him probably changed her way of thinking, which seems to impact this method quite a bit...

As for Ultear, it only took her a day to perfect it! Which was incredible in my opinion.

She wasn't really a physical type, but she had immense innate magic power and talent!

Someone like her obviously had an easier time with meditation and yet she still perfected it that quickly!

Natural talent is nice...

Gray and Lion on the other hand took over a week to learn it! I honestly thought they'd learn fast like the others but I guess not.

Don't get me wrong, a week is insanely fast, but after seeing Erza, Ultear and Cana...

It took me much longer to perfect it than them though, even if I was quite younger.

So it's still a great learning speed!

…

I was applying five time normal gravity to myself while the others just did it normally.

I did create an area with two times normal gravity from time to time for them, which obviously made things harder for everyone.

Inside it they'd do a normal training regime.

Saitama-sensei's training works like a charm...

Surprisingly no one complained, Cana was able to do most of it with relative ease up to the end!

Erza was also fine with it, especially since she's been doing it longer.

Gray and Lyon were having a hard time but were still bȧrėly managing to pull through...

The one who was having the hardest time with the training was actually Ultear!

She had never really tried to work out so much, but with her experiences from the bureau of magical development, her pain tolerance was high and she could still continue until the end.

Being a prodigy at magic specifically had it's down sides huh?

Though it was also her who reaped the most benefits from all of this...

Once she gained both physical and magic prowess she'd completely whipe the floor with most guild members! Gray and Lyon obviously not being excluded.

While they were training inside the gravity zone, I continued attempting to combine my few certain spells together...

Slowly but surely, I was improving at it!

Sweet!

...

The months passed and new people joined the guild, some of which I recognized!

Levi, Jet, Droy, Bickslow and Freed all appeared at our doorstep by the end of X776.

The latter two quickly became buddies with Laxus while the former became a group of three friends who would inevitably form team Shadow Gear!

But they had their own things to do so we spend less time with them than we did together.

Everything preceded smoothly, I visited my family's grave bringing the good news that Matthew and Lilith had certainly survived, the year then shifted to X777 and we just continued doing our thing.

Occasionally we'd take a break to go on jobs, be it me and Erza, Gray Lyon and Ultear or Cana joining either of the two.

Though both Cana and Erza would often go separately from me, as I apparently made any job "boring"…

Was kind of harsh, not gonna lie…

Anyway, it wasn't until after I turned twelve, and another month passed that I finally mastered the combination of the spells!

...

(Fiore Kingdom, February 12th of X777, Forest near Magnolia town)

"{Ether Spiral Sphere}!" I said, creating the magical version of the rasengan which appeared on my palm.

"{Wind Vortex}!" I continued, adding the wind attribute to the spiraling ether ball.

Thr two spells joined together, a creating a huge chaotic mess of magic power!

The spells individually needed to be strong enough to not disperse but also not too strong so they wouldn't just explode in each other...

If they weren't at the same level of power, they'd just follow either one of the previously mentioned routes…

After months of training my magic control I was finally able to subdue the two spells and combine them!

The end result being, The Rasen Shuriken!

When I finally recreated it I simply stared at the giant spiraling fidget spinner in my hand.

The corners of my mouth slowly crept up in a smile.

"I guess I should test this baby out then huh?" with that short mumble, I looked around the area until I saw a very nice hill, decently big and all.

"Well here goes nothing…" I said, throwing the shuriken at the hill!

Not a moment after it connected with the ground, the entire area was engulfed in a giant spinning blue sphere of magic!

It was at least fifty meters in diameter! Spiraling fast enough to create shockwaves and strong winds that blew at trees so hard it uprooted them, sending them up into the air!

Everything inside of the spiraling sphere of death was being attacked at a molecular level, nothing remained in the end but a big crater that sank a bit over a dozen meters into the ground.

"Wow. That was more effective than I thought it'd be…" I mumbled in surprise.

I had actually already used this spell before, before I mastered the actual process of making the combination work…

Using spells like {Combine}, {Merge}, {Integrate} or even {Equilibrium} I could still use the spell, though it was a bit weaker than this…

Maybe about 80-85% of what I displayed now…

The reason I learned how to combine them without a third spell was for practicality.

This would be much faster in combat than saying a third word once I mastered it, also this wouldn't really be training otherwise…

The biggest plus from this is that I've leveled up my magic control to new heights!

I should now be able to add certain effects to spells without using the actual word for it, or even doing both and leveling up the spell!

I'm talking about my favorite {Spiral Flame} Spell.

With what I've learned I can get the same effect from simply saying {Fire}, and if I used the full spell making it how I normally do, I can speed it up exponentially more with actual control over it!

Not that I couldn't do it before, just now I'm far better at it and it's worthwhile!

"What the hell happened?!" Gray yelled as he and the others ran towards me.

I had left them in a gravity area up until now, saying I was gonna do some me training.

"Oh, hey guys!" I waved back at them.

"Are you alright?" Ultear asked.

"Sure am!" I replied as everyone finally arrived at the spot I was in.

"That's… A big hole…" Lyon commented, looking at the crater I had created.

"Not just that, the surroundings are completely ravaged… What did you do Arthur?" Erza asked me after looking at the carnage around the crater.

The strong winds and shockwaves had decimated the forest, broken up trees where all over the place, uprooted and even cut apart in some places!

Heck leaves were even still falling from the sky…

"I, ugh… I succeeded in creating a new spell." I replied with a smile.

"Hahaha! As expected of you nii-chan!" Cana said walking up to the edge of the crater. "It's a good spell! I approve! Hehe" She continued with a chuckle.

"But you seriously did a number on the forest with it…" Ultear said, still looking at all the damage.

"That's no problem really, unlike most people I actually clean my mess myself. {Restore}!" I said and cast my spell

Restore returned all the earth in its place fixing the crater, restored all the trees to their prime condition and placed them back in their place, roots and all.

Within moments the scene of carnage disappeared like it was never there to begin with.

"I really envy that power…" Cana mumbled to herself.

"Haha! It is quite useful, I wonder if there's a similar magic that could repair things so efficiently" Ultear said, musing on the idea.

There is actually… The arc of time…

I wonder if I could find a way for her to learn it in this time line…?

"I just wish I had that type of fire power myself." Gray said as he started walking back to where he came from. "I'm gonna continue training, see you guys there" He continued.

"Ah, wait for me I'm also coming. Well, see you later Arthur!" Lyon said and ran up to Gray.

"See you later!" I waved at them both. "So what about you three?" I asked the girls.

"I think I'll go home for today… Quite tired after the gravity training and running here at full speed… Hehe…" Ultear said.

"Okay then, I'll be seeing you tomorrow morning at the guild then." I replied and opened a gate for her leading to the Fairy Hills.

It was basically a large building where the female members of fairy tail could rent a room at and live in.

Quite expensive might I add...

"Thanks." Ultear said with a smile and walked through.

"You two staying?" I asked Erza and Cana.

"Yes, I'd like to have a bout with you again." Erza said, requiping a broad sword in her right hand.

"Ooh! I think I'll just watch in that case! Have fun you two." Cana said with a smile.

"Fine, let's do this then." I shrugged.

The two of us fought for a good thirty straight minutes, with me mostly dodging and throwing a few spells her way.

She has gotten quite a bit stronger from the first time we sparred, but even then I was holding back greatly.

Now though, I actually have to try to dodge her normal strikes!

Apparently, thanks to Lazarus she has Future sight… It was the reason she almost hit me before.

So I sped up gradually over time.

She's doing well honestly!

The fight ended with Erza completely exhausted and unable to continue anymore. Even though that was supposed to be her state, she kept going! I had to actually knock her down and pin her to the ground with gravity magic before she finally gave up…

I went up to her and extended my hand which she took.

"I still can't hit you…" She grumbled

"You're getting better at this, you might not have noticed it but you're already more than twice as strong as when he first sparred! Just keep up the good work." I replied, trying to encourage her.

She simply nodded and I helped her get to a tree where she sat down to rest.

"That was a good fight! After seeing it I myself am starting to itch for one! Hehehe!" Cana said with a grin on her face.

"Do you want to have a fight with me?" I asked, looking at Cana.

"Hmm… Yup!" She replied.

The two of us proceeded to have a short bout, mostly involving punches and kicks.

I had to take Cana a bit more seriously, as she was still physically stronger than Erza was currently.

She had been training and fighting for longer, it was natural.

The only real training Erza had prior to this was mining whatever stones or ores they forced the slaves to mine at the tower of heaven.

That was only for about a year I believe… Though I haven't asked so I'm not certain of how long she spent there.

After about twenty minutes of barrages of kicks and punches from Cana, she suddenly stopped.

"Alright, I think I'm done here. You're impossible to hit!" She said with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry! But I'd honestly rather not get disassembled by crash magic!" I replied to which she just poke her tongue out and turned to Erza.

"Have you managed to rest up?" She asked.

"Yes. I'm fine now." Erza replied.

"Well, if you're both fine let's go pick up those two and head back to the guild. I think we should call it a day by now." I said.

It was already nearing sunset and we've been here since the morning.

Erza stood up and I made a gate to where Gray and Lyon were.

Drenched in sweat, they were panting and doing push up with only boxers on.

I have been keeping the gravity zone active the entire time here, honestly not as hard as you'd think even though it's at a distance of a few hundred meters…

After we picked them up we simply went back home.

More time passed and a few months later in April Evergreen joined the guild.

The thunder legion had finally formed! Sweet!

I didn't even notice when it happened, but the date was already X777 July 7th.

The day the Eclipse gate opened, and the five dragon slayers arrived from the past!

I knew what would happen today, so I sat on the roof of the guildhall, staring at the night sky.

It was bright, stars lit up the dark sky with an eclipsed moon in the sky.

After I stayed like that for a while, I finally saw five bright shooting stars scatter from the Capital's direction!

Each flew towards a different location, while one landed a couple dozen kilometers away from Magnolia Town.

"Why, hello there Natsu." I said with a smile on my face.

"It's been twelve long years! And now I finally get to meet that guy! This is exciting!" I said and stood up from the roof.

Wings grew on my back and I started flying towards the general direction of where he landed at.

Hahaha!

I wonder what the great E.N.D is like in person?

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