Yorick was sent flying several meters by the shockwave, his black robe turning to ash in the flames, revealing a skeletal frame—it was a living skeleton!
Eerie blue ghost fire leaked from between his ribs, and specks of phosphorescence sparked as his finger bones rubbed together.
"A Necromancer?" Natsu's pupils constricted, the black mist churning within the skeleton's chest reflected in the firelight, "No, it's a Necromancer itself!"
Yorick's skeletal jawbone opened and closed, emitting a laugh like bronze scraping stone: "You figured it out."
Before his voice faded, the moment his bony palm struck the ground, intricate skull reliefs appeared on the surface.
The ground within a ten-meter radius churned like boiling mud, and countless white bone arms with fractured wrist bones burst forth, rotten cloth strips still clinging to their finger bones, and blackened dirt embedded in their nail beds.
"Sea of Corpses!" The tide of white bones spread at a visible speed, the wrist bones of the front-row bone hands already hooking Natsu's shoelaces.
"Happy!" Natsu roared, simultaneously leaping back a meter.
The small blue cat on his shoulder suddenly constricted its pupils, its paw pressing against Natsu's nape, its entire body melting like moonlight cast upon a lake, a silvery-white stream of light seeping into his body along his spine.
Natsu's white wings, originally condensed from magic power on his back, suddenly surged, the flame patterns on their membranes twisting like living things.
With a loud bang, when the four-meter-long blazing Fire Wings unfolded, the airflow blew the bone hands on the ground helter-skelter.
Sparks flicked from the wingtips touched the white bones, immediately igniting pale blue flames, and those arms turned to bone ash in their wails, only for new bone hands to emerge from the ashes.
His fists ignited with a lava-like glow, the flames at the peaks of his fists solidifying into the shape of a dragon's head: "Fire Dragon's—"
Yorick suddenly spread his ribs, the black mist in his chest pouring out like a breached flood.
Hundreds of distorted human faces floated in the viscous black mist, some with bulging eyeballs, others with torn lips, all faces emitting a shriek at the same frequency.
"Ugh ah—!" Natsu felt an invisible force violently strike his chest, and his newly condensed flame fists instantly disintegrated into sparks.
The shrieks turned into tangible sound waves, making his eardrums buzz, and warm blood seeped from his nostrils.
"Wailing of the Specter!" The eerie blue ghost fire in Yorick's skeletal eye sockets surged, "Your flames can burn away flesh, but they cannot burn away the resentment of the dead!"
The ripples formed by the sound waves swept across the ground, shattering the newly emerged bone hands, only for them to reassemble in the black mist.
As Natsu was knocked to the ground, his back hit a broken tree stump.
He wiped his bleeding nostrils, and flames erupted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose simultaneously: "Then try this!"
Natsu took a deep breath, a dragon-like growl emanating from his throat, his chest heaving violently like a bellows, and the surrounding air was sucked into his lungs.
"Fire Dragons Roar!" A scorching white pillar of fire erupted from his mouth, the air in its path twisting into prism shapes, refracting the surrounding tree shadows into shattered light spots.
Yorick pushed his bony palms forward, and the black mist condensed like a living thing into a turtle shell-shaped shield.
The moment the flames collided with the black mist, the resulting shockwave snapped all trees within a twenty-meter radius in half, their canopies cascading down like a green waterfall.
In the heatwave, Yorick's left arm bone developed spiderweb-like cracks, but dozens of finger bones immediately extended from the black mist, rapidly repairing the cracks like a sewing machine, with a black viscous liquid seeping from the bone seams.
"It's useless." Yorick's jawbone opened into a sinister arc, every vertebra clicking, "My body is made of hundreds of dead bones. How many can you burn away?"
The black mist around him suddenly boiled, and the bone hands emerging from the ground instantly doubled, forming an impenetrable wall of bones.
Meanwhile, Gray and Erigor's battlefield had turned into an ice-wind hell.
Erigor's giant scythe whipped up three dark green tornados, countless wind blades vaguely visible spinning at high speed in their eyes, forcing Gray back to the edge of the cliff.
"Hiss—" A wind blade grazed Gray's cheek, the blood droplets it carried instantly atomizing in the air by the wind blade.
He could feel the skin at the wound being decomposed by the wind magic, and quickly condensed magic power to suppress the injury.
"Ice Make—Floor!" The moment Gray clapped his hands on the ground, an ice-blue magic circle exploded on the cliff face, and ice covered the entire rock like a tide, forming a smooth ice surface.
As he slid across the ice, blue sparks rubbed between his soles and the ice, narrowly avoiding the scythe's horizontal sweep.
The cliff behind him was shaved down by a full three meters by the wind blades, revealing the internal grey-blue rock layers, and gravel were ground into powder in the tornado.
Just then, Levy suddenly rushed out from the side, her colorful magic book rustling in the wind.
She turned to a page, on which was drawn a mermaid-like Nami, the scales on her fishtail depicted with silver powder, gleaming with a pearlescent luster in the moonlight.
"Story Manifestation · Nami · Reader Immersion!"
Levy bit her index finger, and the moment a drop of blood fell onto the pattern, the silver powder suddenly lit up.
Her legs were enveloped in a deep blue light, and a water-patterned magic circle appeared beneath her skin, transforming into a fishtail covered in pearlescent scales in the blink of an eye.
Water rings constantly condensed water droplets around her, forming a flowing band of light behind her.
She waved her sapphire-encrusted staff, and a faint sound of tides came from the direction of the sea.
The next second, a three-meter-high giant wave appeared out of nowhere, its crest carrying white foam as it crashed towards Erigor.
The water wave was cut into fine mist the moment it contacted the wind blades, each water droplet refracting a rainbow-like halo.
Gray had been waiting for a long time, pressing his hands into the pervasive mist: "Ice Make—Thousand Cherry Blossoms!"
The moment magic power was injected, countless ice crystals condensed in the mist, forming cherry blossom shapes with edges as sharp as blades.
When the ice flower storm collided with the tornado, it erupted with a crisp sound like shattering glass, the dark green wind was cut into countless fragments, forming a swirling ice crystal vortex in the air.
Erigor was forced to retreat, fine ice cracks appearing on his scythe, with cold air seeping from each crack.
"Good teamwork." He licked the bloodstain at the corner of his mouth, the ice chips making a crunching sound as they melted on his tongue, "But how long can you last?"
Before his voice faded, he suddenly spun his scythe, and dark green magic power surged out like a volcanic eruption, forming a hurricane shield with a diameter of one hundred meters.
"Storm Domain!" The air within the domain was compressed into visible green airflow, and gravel and broken wood spun at high speed in the wind, turning into countless deadly projectiles.
Levy's water ring was torn open by a wind blade, and a cold-glowing wind blade aimed directly at her throat.
Gray instantly flashed in front of her, crossing his hands to form an ice shield seal.
"Crack—"
The ice shield was covered in spiderweb-like cracks the moment it contacted the wind blade, shattering completely the next second, and the wind blade cut a bone-deep wound on Gray's right shoulder, his white shoulder blade faintly visible in the moonlight.
"Gray!" Levy's fishtail slapped the ground heavily, the splashing water forming a water curtain that lifted them both back.
She looked at the black blood constantly seeping from Gray's wound—a sign of erosion by wind magic with dark attributes—and quickly turned to a new page in her magic book.
"Tidal Heal!" A pale blue stream of water surged from the page, carrying the fresh scent of seaweed and enveloping the wound.
Miraculously, the water stream merged with Gray's own Ice Demon magic power, forming a translucent healing ice armor over the wound, under which new flesh was vaguely visible slowly growing.
Gray surprisingly moved his right arm, although there was still a stinging sensation, he could already exert force with effort: "This is..."
"Nami's healing power." Levy's fishtail glowed faintly, and water droplets dripping from her hair tips crystallized into blue ice crystals on the ground, "But my magic power is only enough to last for thirty minutes."
Faint cracks had already appeared on the cover of her magic book, a sign of overuse of magic.
Gray wiped the ice chips from his forehead, his eyes sharp as knives: "That's enough."
He posed his hands, tiny ice prisms condensing at his fingertips, and cold air surged around him, "I'll take the offensive."
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"