Wollan's Distress Signal

News of Erza working as a waitress at a dessert shop quickly spread through the guild.

This explosive news directly caused the tavern's customer traffic to plummet.

Most of the guys who regularly hung around the guild chose to go check it out, wanting to see what Erza was like as a waitress.

Most of the girls... did too.

As for who had spread the news... Rhode was the first to be ruled out.

"You did this again, didn't you?"

"I only told Marcus."

"...Which was basically the same as telling the whole guild."

"I didn't expect everyone to be so eager to experience Erza's service." Mira smiled. "Don't you want to try it, Rhode?"

"Spare me." Rhode said. "When she dressed as a nurse, she nearly strangled me with bandages. If she works as a waitress...

Won't she smash a customer's head with a tray? Or stomp them under her feet or something?"

Mira waved a hand. "It won't be that exaggerated, no matter what."

Hope they're okay. Rhode prayed for his companions for a second, then took advantage of the quiet to train.

Several dummies and wooden posts had been set up in a corner of the guild's backyard, along with a rack for hanging sandbags, for practicing martial arts.

Every part involving wood had been generously provided by Laki's Wood Shape magic.

Her payment had been a simple diagram Rhode drew of the "Blood Droplet."

In wuxia novels, this thing would probably count as a weapon or concealed weapon, but because its design was so savage and resembled a torture device, Laki liked it.

He heard she had already asked someone to revise the blueprints in detail and was preparing to start making it.

Most of the time, Rhode used the training equipment, but his diligence occasionally rubbed off on the others, and they would come train whenever they had time.

Especially Jet, Troy, and the others who had been beaten by him.

Rhode had originally asked Laki to make two wooden training dummies, but Natsu found Rhode's rapid-fire strikes entertaining and insisted on trying one.

After that, all that remained of the wooden dummies were the posts.

But that was fine. Without the dummies, they could strike them however they pleased.

Thudding sounds rang out from the backyard as Rhode grew increasingly adept at coordinating his magic power with his fists and kicks.

"Answer my call, Crimson Beakbird!"

A crimson magic circle flashed, and six Strange Birds—one large and five small—appeared in the guild's backyard.

"Caw~" The largest bird raised its head and let out a somewhat raspy cry.

The Crimson Beakbird and Sharp Beak Birds were commonly known as Six Birds, or F6.

They were not particularly powerful wild monsters in the game, but when manifested in reality, their sharp beaks possessed considerable piercing power.

They also had a ranged attack—they could fire their feathers like throwing knives.

The small ones could only shoot them one at a time, while the large one could launch them in volleys.

Moreover, their feathers regrew soon after being fired. Rhode understood it as a skill cooldown and gave the move the name Feather Barrage.

Their weakness was that they could not fly very high. The Sharp Beak Birds' wings were a little too small, and their flying ability was probably only slightly better than a pheasant's.

The good news was that the large one could carry Rhode while gliding or flying at low altitude. In addition, thanks to their sturdy legs, they were fairly good runners.

"Success!" Rhode clenched his fist, his heart surging with joy.

Not because he had acquired Six Birds, but because he had successfully shortened the chant.

He had condensed the lengthy chant to half a sentence plus a name, enough to handle sudden situations.

He believed that before long, Rhode would reach the point he sought, where simply calling out a name would successfully activate it.

He gauged the magic power consumption for summoning Six Birds. It was a little more than three river crabs—acceptable.

Rhode directed the Sharp Beak Birds through some simple movements, then summoned Three Wolves and tried to make them coordinate with the birds in alternating charges.

Afterward, he summoned the Stone Beetles and tried to see whether they could form a formation capable of both offense and defense.

After drilling for quite a while, Rhode let his magic power drop to a level that would not interfere with normal movement before returning to the tavern.

The Erza-watching incident from a week ago had passed safely, thankfully without any casualties.

However, news of the Dark Guild Scorpion's Tail being wiped out had made Mage Weekly.

The Council had shown some integrity, openly acknowledging that it had been entirely Erza's achievement without trying to claim credit.

Though they were somewhat dissatisfied with Erza acting on her own, they had not held back in praising her abilities.

"As expected of Erza." That was most of their companions' assessment.

"That girl's getting scarier and scarier." That was Gray's impression. He had even taken the initiative to check whether he was wearing clothes.

"Scorpion's Tail... wasn't that a legal guild?" Nab's question made the area around him fall silent.

That did seem to be true. Erza had attacked a legal guild? No, no, the Council had been involved. That couldn't be right.

Marcus was more than happy to explain. "Scorpion's Tail was only recently classified as a Dark Guild.

"To make money, they secretly helped certain wealthy merchants suppress their competitors through kidnapping and coercion. It was only exposed some time ago."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but their hearts immediately rose into their throats again.

"Help!"

Everyone in the guild, Rhode included, heard that voice.

"So scary! Someone, save me!"

The same voice rang out again.

Rhode suddenly realized that the voice had not come from outside, but had sounded directly in his mind.

Before he could ask, Mira said gravely, "Wollan. That's Wollan's Telepathy magic. He can transmit whatever he wants to say directly to others from afar."

Rhode was not familiar with Wollan. He only remembered that the man had peculiar side-swept bangs and liked to keep to himself.

The others had recognized it as well. "That's Wollan's voice!"

"He's calling for help! Did he run into danger?"

"But wasn't he going on a date with girlfriend today?" Marcus had learned that when he spoke with Wollan yesterday.

"Where are you, Wollan?" Gray shot to his feet and shouted, trying to speak to Wollan.

Some of the others shouted, while others asked Wollan's location in their minds, yet no one received a response.

Wollan merely repeated words like "scary," "terrifying," and "help."

With a bang, Loki shoved open the guild's front door from outside and ran in to ask:

"Does anyone know what's happening? Everyone on the streets can hear Wollan's cries for help now! It's going to cause panic!"

"So it's an indiscriminate call for help!" Erza could no longer remain seated. "The Master isn't here, so I'll take command for now! Everyone, prepare for battle!"

Erza quickly assigned tasks. One group set out at once to maintain order and protect the residents; another was tasked with locating Wollan and preparing a rescue.

Normally, when mages went out into the world, they were responsible for all their actions and the risks those actions brought.

If others stepped in to help without permission, it might be taken as an insult, hurting the person's pride.

But if someone personally called for help because they were in danger, then as their companions, they would rescue them no matter what.

At least, that was how Fairy Tail did things.