Juvia's Captured Heart

The scene shifts, and the battle between Natsu and Totomaru has reached its climax.

"Behold my blue flames!"

With a push of his Totomaru, a strange ball of blue flame rushed towards Natsu.

However, Natsu neither dodged nor avoided, nor even bothered to adopt a defensive stance. He simply opened his mouth wide and swallowed the ball of flame in one gulp.

"Burp~ Oh! So refreshing! This is the first time I've ever tasted such an icy-cold flame!"

Natsu smacked his lips again, seemingly wanting more after finishing his meal.

"As expected of the Fire Dragon Slayer Mage,"

A hint of surprise flashed in Totomaru's eyes.

"Neither of us seems to be afraid of fire."

Don't compare me to you!

Natsu grinned.

"Let me show you my power, Fire Dragon's Roar!"

A torrent of fiery dragon breath erupted, but Totomaru merely smiled dismissively and flicked his finger.

The flames that should have engulfed him instead made a graceful turn in mid-air and blasted straight at Natsu himself.

The Dragon Slayer couldn't absorb his own flames. Although the temperature didn't harm Natsu, the powerful impact still sent him staggering back several steps.

"I already told you, fire has no effect on me."

Totomaru laughed smugly.

"Try this move again, Orange Flame!"

A sticky, orange flame flew over, and without thinking, Natsu opened his mouth and inhaled again.

"Vomit!"

The next second, Natsu's face turned green, and he bent over, gagging.

"Ugh! What... what is this thing? It stinks! A hundred times stinkier than Gray's stinky socks!"

"Ha ha!"

Totomaru burst into laughter.

"This is a specially made, incredibly foul-smelling flame!"

It's important to understand that Natsu's sense of smell is many times more sensitive than that of a hunting dog, so the psychological damage caused by this stench was far greater than that of a physical attack.

"You bastard... I'm going to beat you to a pulp!!"

Natsu went completely berserk. He abandoned magic and charged forward like an enraged beast, fists clenched.

"Oh? Finally, we don't need fire anymore?"

Seeing this, Totomaru instead drew his katana from his waist.

"That would be even more advantageous for me!"

On the other side of the battlefield, cold rain fell from the sky, enveloping Gray and Juvia. Gray, shirtless, was locked in a fierce battle with Juvia.

No, to be precise, it was Juvia was unilaterally dodging Gray's attacks.

Cold raindrops slid down Gray's sharply defined muscles as he looked at the blue-haired woman before him, his expression grave. "You're Juvia, one of the Element 4, the 'Rain Woman'?"

Juvia's gaze wasn't on what he was saying at all; instead, she was staring intently at his muscular physique. Two blushes instantly rose to her cheeks, and her heart pounded wildly.

"May I have your name?"

"I am Gray from Fairy Tail."

"So... so handsome..."

She murmured softly, her eyes unfocused.

Hey! What are you spacing out for?!

Gray growled impatiently, crossing his arms in front of him.

"ICE MAKE - Battle Axe!"

Two enormous ice Battle Axes materialized in his hands, and he charged forward in a single stride.

"Oh no! Lord Gray is attacking!"

Instead of being afraid, Juvia became even more excited, her body nimbly transforming into a stream of water to dodge Gray's slash.

She didn't want to fight "Lord Gray," she just wanted the battle to continue forever.

However, Gray, oblivious to romance, after his attacks were easily dodged several times, irritably shook the rain off his head, frowned, and complained, "Ugh, this damn rain, it's so annoying!"

That one sentence was like a switch, completely changing the atmosphere of the battlefield.

Juvia froze in mid-air, her previously rosy face instantly turning cold.

The rain from the sky intensified.

"Lord Gray... what did you just say?"

Juvia's voice trembled slightly with disbelief.

"I said this rain is so annoying!"

Gray answered matter-of-factly.

"It's sticky and it's getting in the way of my fighting!"

"Yeah..."

Juvia lowered her head, her bangs obscuring her eyes, but the magic emanating from her surged wildly.

"You said the rain in Juvia... is annoying?"

"Water Stream Slash!"

She suddenly raised her head, swung her arms, and several high-pressure water blades shot towards Gray at an astonishing speed!

"Are you finally getting serious?!"

Gray dared not be careless and immediately created a huge Ice Shield in front of him.

"ICE MAKE Shield!"

The water blade collided violently with the Ice Shield, making a hissing sound and splashing up a large amount of water.

"How dare you... insult Juvia's rain! No wonder nobody likes Juvia."

Juvia's body slowly rose into the air, her eyes bloodshot, as if she had gone berserk.

"Juvia will make you taste what it's like to be submerged! The Water Lock!"

Tentacles made of water rose from the ground, coiling towards Gray like venomous snakes.

Gray used his ice blades to cut through the water whips while desperately dodging, but there were simply too many of them, and he gradually found himself stretched thin.

"Damn it! How did this guy's magic suddenly become so strong!"

"Because you made Juvia Boil! Let's get this party started!"

Juvia clasped her hands together, and all the water around her began to heat up, billowing steam, and the air became scorching hot.

"Go forth, Boiling Water Hell!"

Boiling water surged forth, forcing Gray to use even greater magical power to create thick ice walls to defend against it.

But Gray was a seasoned veteran, and after a brief period of being on the defensive, he immediately discovered the key to breaking the deadlock.

"Your body is water, so what if you froze everything around you?"

He slammed his hands onto the ground!

"ICE MAKE: Ice Age!"

Centered on him, extreme cold spread wildly in all directions, freezing the surging hot water, splashing raindrops, and even the ground beneath Juvia's feet into solid ice!

"What?!"

Juvia lost her balance when her footing suddenly froze, and she fell heavily onto the ice.

Gray eventually found a weakness in Juvia and successfully defeated her.

Coincidentally, at the very moment Juvia was defeated, the gloomy, rainy sky suddenly cleared, and warm sunlight shone down.

Gray sat down next to her, looked at the sky, and exclaimed sincerely, "Look! The scenery on a sunny day isn't actually that bad, is it!"

"Hmm... it's beautiful!"

Juvia lay on the ground, staring intently at Gray's profile outlined in the sunlight.

I don't know if she was referring to the sky or the person in front of her.

Just as the battles on various battlefields were raging, Aria, the leader of the Element 4, finally regained her magic.

Instead of making a grand entrance on the front lines, he stealthily circled around to the rear like a venomous snake, lurking near Jiang Bai, preparing to launch a deadly sneak attack.

Jiang Bai almost burst out laughing at this.

Dude, you're trying to ambush me when I have full map vision?

Fine, I'll give you this chance, so you can die knowing why.

This time, Aria had clearly learned his lesson. Without saying a word, he immediately cast a spell from behind.

"Airspace Annihilation!"

Only after the massive magic circle completely enveloped Jiang Bai did he speak in a mournful, lamenting tone. "How sorrowful! How sorrowful! Today, the legendary 'Infinity' Jiang Bai will perish here!"

After saying that, Aria immediately activated the magic.

After the storm, Jiang Bai was still standing in the same spot, perfectly fine, without even his clothes being disheveled.

"How... how is this possible?!"

Aria's eyes widened in horror.

"I clearly felt my magic succeed! Your magic should have been completely drained by me!"

"Yes, it was a success."

Jiang Bai picked at his ear and said with an innocent look,

"Successfully eliminated... about three percent of my magic power."

"This... this is impossible!! My move can completely nullify the magic power of even the Ten Wizard Saints!"

"You... you're a human, how could you possibly possess such immense magical power?!"

Aria's worldview collapsed.

"Tch, so ignorant."

Jiang Bai said disdainfully,

"It seems your magic limit is only this much."

As he spoke, Jiang Bai used his invisible Telekinesis to draw the magic power that had dissipated in the air back into his body.

(We don't know why the removed magic can't recover on its own; in the original story, Makarov's magic was captured and brought back by Mystogan.)

"Alright, I gave you the chance, but unfortunately you couldn't seize it."

Jiang Bai held up one finger.

"Then, disappear."

"Cursed Technique Reversal - He."

A flash of red light annihilated Aria, along with the terrified expression on his face, into the most basic particles, leaving not a trace behind.

Meanwhile, on the distant battlefield, thanks to his superior physical abilities, Natsu also decisively defeated Totomaru in close combat.

By the way, Totomaru's face was especially swollen, and this was definitely not Natsu's petty act of retaliating against him for being fed the stinky flame, absolutely not!