At the same time, the battle on Natsu's side grew fiercer.
The bone sea summoned by Yorick had covered half the battlefield, countless white bone arms surged like a black tide, and the knuckles of each bone hand clicked.
Natsu's fire wings flapped continuously, tracing bright white arcs in the air, but each time the flames touched the black mist, a'sizzle' sound was heard, and they were nullified by the resentment of the vengeful spirits.
"It's useless, fire brat." Yorick's skeletal body flickered in and out of the black mist, the ghostly blue fire leaking from his ribs illuminated the churning human faces in his chest, "Your flames can't harm me in the slightest!"
He suddenly opened his jawbone and spewed out a rain of bones made of countless finger bones, each finger bone glowing with a poisoned black aura.
Natsu suddenly stopped attacking, compressing the flames in his palm into a pigeon egg-sized orb of light, the flame patterns on the orb's surface pulsating like a heart: "Happy, are you ready?"
Happy, who had merged into his body, responded: "Aye! Light Shield ready!"
Natsu could feel his chest heating up, a warm stream of light spreading from his heart to his limbs.
Yorick sensed danger and slammed his bone palms together: "Bone Prison!"
Dozens of obsidian-like bone spikes erupted from the ground, their surfaces covered with twisted runes, forming a hexagonal cage that sealed off all of Natsu's escape routes.
The tips of the bone spikes were only three centimeters from Natsu's throat; he could even smell the putrid odor emanating from the bones.
"Too late!" Natsu pressed the orb of light to his chest, and a brilliant white light instantly enveloped his entire body.
Happy's Light Magic merged with Dragon Slayer Magic, forming flowing white-gold dragon scale patterns on his body, each dragon scale glowing like a tiny sun.
"Light-Flame Dragon Mode!"
The bone spikes shattered like glass upon impact with the dragon armor, turning into dust and dissipating into the air.
Natsu transformed into a beam of white light, piercing through Yorick's chest, and the skeletal body disintegrated in the air, shoulder blades, leg bones, and vertebrae scattering like fireworks.
But the black mist quickly gathered, each broken bone enveloped by the black mist, black viscous liquid seeping from the fractures, reassembling the bones.
"I told you—" Yorick's voice came from all directions, carrying the echoes of countless vengeful spirits, "I am already dead, you cannot kill me!"
Many golden patterns appeared on his reassembled skeleton, traces of absorbed Natsu's magic power.
The moment Natsu landed, he suddenly dropped to one knee, panting heavily.
The continuous use of fusion magic was too exhausting, and the dragon armor's light began to flicker, its color dimming.
Natsu's expression was not good; he genuinely felt it was a bit tricky, "With this guy's strength, how can he only be a vice-guild master?"
Yorick seized the opportunity, hundreds of bone spears extended from the black mist, their tips glowing with an eerie blue phosphorescence, raining down on Natsu!
Natsu struggled to stand up, but his movements were noticeably slower, clearly unable to dodge.
"Natsu!" Gray's shout came from a distance.
An Ice Wall rose from the ground, covered with complex magic circles, but the bone spears easily penetrated the ice, and the array patterns shattered into blue light points upon contact with the bone spears.
At the critical moment, Levy manipulated a wave to form a rotating vortex, and a strong suction force in the center of the water vortex deflected half of the bone spears.
When the bone spears plunged into the ground, the splashed earth turned black.
Natsu seized the chance to roll away, but three bone spears still pierced his left leg and right abdomen.
Blood instantly soaked his clothes; he could feel the dark magic power on the bone spears corroding the wounds, so he gritted his teeth, broke off the bone spears, and pressed the flames in his palm onto the wounds, producing a'sizzling' sound of burning, and a smell of charring mixed with blood filled the air.
"A dying struggle." Yorick's skull floated in the center of the black mist, his jawbone opened at a bizarre angle, "Become a part of me!"
The black mist around him suddenly contracted, forming a giant mouth-shaped vortex, and countless sharp, tooth-like bone spikes emerged from the depths of the vortex.
At the moment of life and death, Natsu's pupils suddenly became vertical slits, and his irises were stained with the molten gold unique to dragons.
"I won't fall here!"
His magic power completely erupted, he roared and tore open his shirt, like an enraged young dragon, a huge red dragon magic circle rotated and spread beneath his feet, accompanied by a deep dragon roar, intense pressure and high-temperature flames erupted.
"Happy! Let's go!"
"Aye!" Happy's voice was perfectly synchronized with his, as if they shared one throat.
The dragon scale patterns on Natsu's body burst forth with sunlight-like radiance, the flames changing from orange-red to pure white-gold, the temperature so high that the surrounding air was burning.
Dragon wings made of light and fire fully unfurled behind him, silver-like light bands flowing on the wing membranes, the wingspan expanding again to five meters, each flap leaving a burning trail.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—" Natsu's fists collided in front of his chest, white-gold flames forming a high-speed rotating storm that enveloped his entire body, and in the center of the storm, the prototype of a phoenix could vaguely be seen soaring, "Crimson Phoenix Sword!"
The moment the flame storm collided with the giant skull mouth, heaven and earth lost their color.
Blinding white light swallowed the entire forest, and trees within a hundred-meter radius were vaporized by the high temperature, leaving only white ashes.
In the light, a phoenix made of white-gold flames could vaguely be seen soaring, its beak pecking open the black mist, its talons tearing apart the bone teeth, and every falling feather transformed into a burning rune.
Yorick's screams echoed through the forest, a chorus of wails from countless vengeful spirits.
Every one of his bones crackled in the holy flames, the black patterns on the white bones melted like ice and snow, finally turning into specks of light and dissipating into the air.
When the light faded, only a scorched crater thirty meters in diameter remained on the ground.
The crater walls had a vitrified texture, reflecting the faint moonlight.
Natsu knelt on one knee in the center of the pit, smoke rising from his body, the dragon armor gone, revealing skin covered in scorch marks.
Happy separated from his body, the feathers on his wings all turned white, weakly lying on his shoulder, his tiny paws still trembling slightly.
"Is... is it over?" Happy's voice was tearful, he had to gasp for breath with every word.
Natsu forced a smile, coughing up a mouthful of bloody spittle: "Ah, burned... completely clean..."
On the other side, Gray and Levy's cooperation also entered its final stage.
Erigor's scythe was already covered in ice crystals, ice chips flaking off with each swing, his movements becoming increasingly sluggish.
The giant waves summoned by Levy were continuously frozen under Gray's control, forming countless upward-protruding ice shards, sealing off his retreat like a crystal forest.
"Damn... bugs!" Erigor swung his scythe, cleaving through the ice shards, blue sparks flying as the blade collided with the ice crystals.
But new ice spikes immediately erupted from beneath his feet, piercing the soles of his boots, and the cold spread upwards along his leg bones.
His wind barrier was permeated by Levy's water mist, each breath he took carried a biting chill, his lungs aching as if they were frozen.
Gray's hands took their final pose, an ice-blue magic circle blooming intensely beneath his feet, tiny ice flowers condensing at the edges of the array patterns, each ice flower having six perfect facets.
"Ice Make—"
Levy simultaneously raised her staff, a mermaid's phantom appearing behind her, the phantom's fish tail slapping the water, raising towering waves: "Roar of the Raging Tide!"
"—Northern Ice Coffin!"
The towering waves were instantly frozen by the extreme cold upon contact with Erigor, forming a thirty-meter-thick transparent ice crystal.
Erigor inside the ice coffin still maintained a look of astonishment, dark green wind blades futilely carved white marks within the ice, but could not break through this seal formed by the dual magic of ice and water.
His hair and eyebrows were covered in ice, and he could feel the stiffness of his eyelids when his eyeballs moved.
Gray collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, the ice armor on his right shoulder began to melt, revealing newly grown pink skin.
Levy's fish tail also reverted to legs, the faint imprint of scales on her knees slowly fading, her magic book closed with a'snap', its color dimming slightly.
The two exchanged smiles and both let out a long sigh of relief.
The air was filled with the dampness of mixed ice and water, and Natsu's stumbling footsteps could be heard in the distance.
Natsu dragged his injured leg over, the flames in the wound on his left leg still faintly flickering, leaving scorched footprints on the ground with every step: "Are... are you two okay?"
Gray managed to give a thumbs-up, the skin on his right shoulder still red: "Better than you. At least I wasn't stabbed like a sieve."
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