Fairy Tail: Bandits vs Fairies

The bandits attacking the Great Magic Library of Fiore had thought they’d hit the jackpot once they’d gotten through the outer defenses. Inside there was nothing but a few guards, piles of magical books and artifacts, as well as lots of students to ransom, particularly pretty schoolgirls. It was pretty much the bandit equivalent of a shopping spree.

When a group of them encountered two young women and one girl standing between them and the hall of cursed objects, they didn’t think the trio were any different from the other women they’d already bagged. The group encircled them like a pack of wolves salivating over fresh game, cackling at their good fortune.

“Oooh, look at the body on the redhead!” one of them chuckled, “So fit…”

“And the boobs on the blonde one,” another added, “I’ve got dibs on those babies.”

“Even the little one is cute! You wanna sit in my lap, sweetie?”

“Maybe we won’t even ransom these three. We can just keep them for ourselves.”

“C’mon, girlies. Let’s get you tied up and comfy. Maybe into some sexier outfits…”

The blonde and the smaller blue-haired girl blushed at their suggestive comments, fists balled at their sides.

“I do NOT want to sit in your lap!” Wendy snapped, struggling to say something mean in return, “Not… not one bit!”

“And you can keep your hands to yourselves, pervs!” Lucy’s blue eyes shone with anger.

The bandits laughed, enjoying the pretty, furious faces of the two girls, their voices sounding shrill and cute as they protested.

The taller, scarlet-haired young woman simply turned up her nose, her gaze a chilled blade. She was as young and smooth-faced as the blonde, but her stony countenance made her seem older, or at least more imposing. When she spoke, her voice was low, but it carried across the marble floors of the hallway.

“Listen well, thieves,” Erza said, “You have attacked the innocent and stolen from the defenseless. Such acts are those of cowards, not warriors. You don’t deserve respect or mercy. Prepare to face my blade.”

The bandits laughed again and began to close in, their eyes twinkling as they fantasized about the fun possibilities with these three beauties.

“Tenryu No Hoko!” Wendy’s little voice cried out.

“Requip Heaven’s Wheel Armor!” Erza bellowed.

“Gate of the Lion! Loke!” Lucy called.

The entire crowd of attackers was tossed aside by a blast of Lucy’s golden celestial energy, the flashing blades of dozens of Erza’s swords, and a cyclone that erupted from Wendy’s mouth. There were relatively few of them for wizards the caliber of these three, any one of them could have handled the whole pack in less than a minute. Working together, the wave of bandits was downed almost instantly.

Once the spells ended, the crowd of predatory criminals was spread around the hall in a groaning mass, scattered by a storm of powerful magic. One or two were slumped halfway out windows, groups of them stuffed together against pillars or flattened against the walls. They trembled with shock, mouths agape, feeling so lucky to be alive in the face of such power that they didn’t dare rise.

One of them was lying on his shoulders, mashed upside down and against a wall, his lower half folding over so he was staring at the trio through his own legs.

“You… you’re not girls…” he whimpered, “You’re… m-monsters!”

Lucy stormed towards him, her pigtails bouncing, pretty features set in a stern glare. Her forbidding expression was at odds with her bright blue eyes, cute little nose, and bright outfit that made her look more like a cheerleader than a wizard. She had the athleticism to match, fit and girlish, with a tummy-revealing crop top and skirt that barely reached mid-thigh, but after that display of power the bandits weren’t admiring how the outfit displayed her body. They were cowering.

As the deceptively perky blonde advanced on him, the bandit who’d just spoken tried to run, but in his awkward position all he managed to do was pedal his legs and push himself tighter into the wall.

Lucy stopped with her boots a few feet from his nose, hands on her hips.

“Listen up!” she pointed into his face, “We’re worse than monsters, as far as a creep like you is concerned! We’re wizards from Fairy Tail! So, you’d better tell us what you’re after before we get really mad!”

“Buh… whuh—wh-whatever we could g-grab!” the pretzeled bandit cried, “The higher ups t-told us to grab anything we wanted! Anything expensive! Anything magic!”

While Lucy interrogated him, Erza and Wendy stepped up to flank her, standing behind her on either side as support.

“And where are you taking the girls?” Lucy snapped, “And… where are you taking everything, actually?”

“T-to our fortress! It’s in the mountains!”

“Oh!”

Lucy continued to glare, giving him all her outrage and disapproval for another several seconds. Then she turned to grin at her friends.

“I knew I could be scary if I wanted!” she winked, “I didn’t even have to use my feminine wiles!”

“You were VERY scary, Lucy-chan!” Wendy smiled.

Erza crossed her arms, “Well done, Lucy. Now ask him what his superiors are after.”

Lucy turned back, her glare immediately returning, “What are your superiors after?”

The bandit gulped, “Uh… nothing? I mean, I don’t know.”

Lucy narrowed her eyes, her mouth scrunching up into a pucker.

“You’re lying.”

The bandit shook his head wildly, the gesture especially awkward with him being lying on his head, “No I’m not!”

“Yes, you are!” Lucy snapped.

“I’m not! I swear!”

“I’ve read about ways you can tell people are lying!” the girl scoffed, “And I can see you sweating! That’s a tell!”

“It’s—it’s hot in here!”

“And you’re hesitating!”

“Uhhh…” the bandit swallowed, “N-no… no I’m not!”

“And you keep looking away! That’s another tell!”

Red-faced, starting to feel cornered, the bandit yelled out in desperation: “I’m only doing that because I can see up your skirt!”

Lucy’s glare immediately fell. She stiffened like she’d been electrocuted, the color draining from her face. She stared at the bandit in absolute shock, frozen in time.

Behind her, Wendy’s hands came to her mouth and she gasped.

Erza narrowed her eyes, “Fiend.”

Once the moment of horror had passed, Lucy squealed and pinched her knees together, clamping her short black skirt down with her hands. She was bright red and trembling with both anger and humiliation.

All three girls stared at the crumpled raider with expressions ranging from shocked to coldly enraged. Everyone knew you didn’t look up a girl’s skirt. If you DID happen to glance in that direction, you certainly didn’t mention it. It was a cardinal sin for a male to do such a thing; perhaps even a capital crime, judging by Erza’s glare.

The bandit cleared his throat, squirming uncomfortably in his contorted position. Being a bandit, he wasn’t familiar with the minutia of etiquette involving female undergarments, but he could sense he had crossed some sort of line.

“Um… I wasn’t trying to look. It’s—it’s just that your panties are such a bright—”

He was abruptly silenced by the sole of Lucy’s boot smashing into his face.

She leaned into the kick, smothering the feckless bandit beneath her boot, before stepping back.

The bandit gaped, his eyes crossed, a perfect print of the girl’s boot on his reddened face.

“Th… bur-bright…” he slurred, his eyes instinctively moving towards the bright color, “Whuh… wh—”

Lucy stomped him again before he could finish. Then for good measure she stomped him another dozen times, hammering her boot into his face like she was trying to crush a particularly gross bug.

“Stop—looking at my—UNDERWEAR!” she shrieked.

After Lucy finished, with another six or seven good stomps, she was panting and flushed, while the bandit had been beaten silly. His mouth gaped with a stupid grin, looking almost euphoric if not for the boot marks all over his face.

Lucy raised his foot to stomp him once more, then changed her mind and planted it back down, tugging self-consciously on her pleated skirt.

“Mmm,” Erza closed her eyes, nodding in solemn approval, “A well-deserved thrashing.”

Lucy crossed her arms under her breasts and glared down at the bandit, still blushing and irked, while Wendy stepped forward and crouched down in front of him.

“Is he dead?” the little girl tilted her head, examining his injuries.

The bandit’s fingers twitched, his dim grin revealing he’d lost a few teeth from the beating, his eyes blank marbles rolling in his head. The sole of Lucy’s boot had been planted in almost the same place every time, so it looked like the bandit’s face had been by marked a very large rubber stamp in the shape of a shoe.

Blinking innocently, brow furrowed with concern, Wendy carefully poked the crown of his head with a little finger, trying to find a place that hadn’t been thoroughly stomped.

“Ur… nurrr…?” he mumbled.

Wendy looked over her shoulder at the older girls, “I… I don’t think he’ll be able to talk anymore.”

On that rare occasion, the perky Lucy Heartfilia and the stern Erza Scarlet looked almost exactly the same in stance and expression. They both held their chins high, glaring down with righteous indignation, arms crossed, severe and forbidding.

“He deserved no less,” Erza said with cold certainty, “He’s fortunate he still has his head.”

“Yeah!” Lucy harumphed, “Or at least that I didn’t use both feet!”

Wendy looked back and forward between them, chewing on her bottom lip. They both seemed so sure of their actions and the young girl looked up to them, particularly Erza, but it seemed like they’d forgotten what they’d been trying to do.

The little dragon slayer hesitated, not wanting to point this out, afraid that she’d overlooked something else and they’d think she’s silly.

“But…” she finally said softly, “Didn’t we… need him to tell us about what they were after?”

The other two stared at her, Erza austere and Lucy grinning somewhat smugly, happy to be a bad ass for once. However, the latter’s grin faded as Wendy’s words penetrated her aura of triumph.

“Oh yeah…” Lucy wilted slightly, “Um… oops.”

Undeterred, Erza nodded to herself, settling on a course of action. While the other two looked at the battered bandit, wondering if they could do something to revive him, the scarlet knight marched towards another of their fallen assailants, her armor rattling with her steps.

“Don’t blame yourself, Lucy,” she said, “It was a noble effort. Allow me to complete this task.”

“Ah…” Lucy blinked, “Of course, Erza…”

Erza was athletic and voluptuous, her cuirass shaped to fit her ample bosom and flat stomach, shoulder armor and gauntlets adding breadth to her muscles. From the waist up she was a knight, but beneath a wide sword belt was a flowing blue skirt that revealed muscular thighs and calves, powerful but surprisingly girlish in shape. The contrast suited the scarlet-haired knight, both warrior and young woman, pretty and even somewhat innocent, but also dangerous.

However, though she wore the metal armor as easy as someone else would wear cotton pajamas, her appearance didn’t warn anyone of the terrifying strength she actually possessed.

Lucy had barely finished speaking before Erza bent down and yanked the nearest bandit from the ground with one hand, with the ease of plucking a flower.

“You.” The powerful wizardess said, “I require information.”

The bandit groaned, still somewhat dazed from the initial attack.

Erza shook him to get his attention, rattling the raider’s head around and making his eyes flutter back to alertness.

“You,” she said again, “Why have your superiors attacked this place? What are they after?”

The bandit shook his head to clear ir, looking around with growing alarm as he realized he was hanging in mid-air, his toes several inches from the ground.

“I, u-uh…” he stammered.

Trying to gather his courage, the man gulped and tried to glare defiantly at Erza, though he mostly just looked terrified.

“I…” he managed to whimper, “I… ain’t t-telling you… anything!”

Erza watched him, her expression thoughtful and calm, despite the fact that she was holding a fully grown and armored man in the air with one hand.

“Very well,” she said, “You are at least loyal to your masters. I can respect that.”

She met his eyes and nodded with approval, acknowledging his courage.

Then she turned, swung him over her head, and slammed him face first into the floor like she was spiking a football.

The impact shook the stone walls, bounced a few of the nearby bandits, and even made Wendy squeak as she lost her balance.

Seeing what had happened to their comrade, any conscious bandits shrieked in unison, several curling into the fetal position while others tried to crawl away like worms, desperate to escape without drawing attention to themselves.

“W-wow…” Lucy stammered, somewhat intimidated herself, “Suddenly I don’t feel so bad about that other guy…”

As if driving a grown man into the ground like a tent stake was something she did every day, Erza strolled over to another bandit and yanked him up in precisely the same manner, holding him up one-handed by his collar. The man squealed in a tone similar to the one Wendy had used a moment before.

“You.” She said again, “I require information.”

This bandit was already wide-eyed and sweating bullets by the time he found himself in the air. He nodded frantically, shaking in Erza’s grasp.

“Y-yeah! I’ll tell you anything! Anything you want! Anything!”

“Good.” Erza said, “Why have your superiors attacked this place? What are they after?”

“Money! Magic! Shiny things! A-anything expensive! Girls too!”

“They could have gotten those things from many places,” Erza narrowed her eyes, “Why did they come here?”

The bandit swallowed, hesitating for only an instant before speaking.

“Th-they said something about… the Xylophones of Merrick, I think…”

An abrupt change came over Erza. Her eyes widened and for the first time in this adventure she was stunned. She stiffened, some of the color draining from her face. Then abruptly she jerked the bandit closer, her glare burning through the back of his head.

“The Siphons of Hedrick?” she snapped.

The bandit gaped at her, pale as a sheet due to her sudden anger. He was momentarily too frightened to speak.

“I-I-I, uh…” he found his tongue, “Y-yeah… I th-think…”

Erza glared at him for another moment, then looked away, her brow lowered in a worried frown.

The bandit, Wendy, and Lucy all stared at her with varying levels of fear and surprise, stunned at the sudden change in her demeanor. Her comrades rarely saw her get upset and even more rarely saw her become worried. Anything that could make her react in such a way was something notable.

After musing for several seconds, Erza’s expression became calm once more and she relaxed. Drawing in a deep breath, she turned back to the bandit and released it, her eyes narrowed but features cool.

“The Siphons of Hedrick.” She said.

“Yes!” the bandit nodded eagerly, “That’s what they’re after! They took on freelance wizards and everything! I overheard, but I don’t know what they are!”

“Do you know where they are?”

“Uh…” the bandit cleared his throat, “They said something about the… main room?”

“Is that all?”

“Yes!”

“Is there anything else?” she asked.

“No!”

Erza grunted, nodding in approval, “Thank you.”

“You’re welc—”

Before he could finish, Erza spiked him into the floor just like she’d done to the previous bandit.

The rest cried out in fright once more, several of them bursting into tears. There was a general chorus of wails and whimpers, apologies, promises never to do anything bad again.

Lucy blinked at the second man that now had his head buried into the ground like a bizarre ostrich.

“Erza,” she said, “Shouldn’t you… NOT do that when they tell you what you want?”

Erza lowered her chin and marched past her comrades. She set her course towards the end of the hallway, in the direction of the library’s main chambers.

“We must hurry,” she said, “Time is of the essence.”

Lucy and Wendy glanced at each other then followed her down the hallway, trotting to catch up.

As the bandits saw the girls were leaving, the group generally slumped and let out loud gasps of relief. There were sobs of gratitude, several of the men hugging, reassuring one another it was over and they were all right.

“Th-thank god…” one of them blubbered.

Lucy caught up to Erza, trying to catch her friend’s eye.

“Erza, what’s wrong?”

“What are the Siphons of Hedrick, Erza-chan?” Wendy asked when she caught up a moment later.

Erza glared straight ahead, fists balled at her sides, her lips tight as she considered her answer.

“They are…” she paused before finishing, “Abomination.”

The girls had almost reached the end of the hallway when a clatter of footsteps and the clanking of armor rounded the corner. Dozens of men began to swarm down the hallway and immediately spied three pretty girls, all alone and mostly unarmed.

The bandits at the front of this new group slowed to a stop and the others followed suit, grinning at their luck.

“Well, well, well!” one of them rested his sword on his shoulder, looking the three girls over, “Looks like our catch just got a little sweeter!”

The others jeered and laughed, but some of their mirth faded as they noticed the piles of unconscious/weeping bandits sprawled behind their intended victims.

Their laughter grew even more uncertain as the girls continued towards them without pausing.

“Run!” one of the recently fallen bandits wailed, “For god’s sake, run!”

“In the name of everything holy! Save yourselves!” another cried, his voice rough with tears, “Run for your lives!”

The smiles began to slip off the faces of this new group of bandits. They weren’t necessarily the smartest people, so it took them a bit longer than usual to add up the factors in this situation.

Dozens of beaten, bawling bandits + trio of nearby girls wearing the emblem of a wizarding guild famous for its destructiveness + said girls marching confidently towards them = …?

A few of the bandits solved that little math problem and began to back away.

Erza advanced on them, armor clanking, eyes blazing.

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In the Great Magic Library of Fiore’s main chamber, Lydia the Green Knight watched from her perch and frowned to herself.

The chamber was a massive tower, floor after floor ringed with books and other valuables. Magic tomes of power, enchanted equipment, antiques and curios; one could stand at the bottom floor and, looking up, not see half the precious items the chamber boasted.

Lydia’s army was in the process of taking everything the library had to offer. She’d had reports that every section of the great building was secured, the central tower alone in the hands of the guards and that being swiftly taken. From the bannister somewhere above the 10th floor of the tower, she could watch her army win a glorious victory like she was looking down on at the pieces on a chess board. She was about to become wealthier than any bandit queen in history, even if she didn’t attain the Siphons of Hedrick.

Yet still she frowned.

“Someone powerful is here,” Lydia’s eyes narrowed, “And she’s coming this way.”

One of Lydia’s lieutenants, Gutride, was licking her lips at a marble statue of a beautiful woman when the Green Knight spoke.

“Powerful?” she grinned sideways at her captain, “Interesting… is she pretty?”

Lydia closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. Tall for a girl, she was striking in her scant green armor, the scale-like metal covering her curving figure with little more decency than a bikini. Almost undeadly pale, her green hair shone bright in comparison, gleaming in the same manner as her armor.

She curled her fingers as she focused on her magic, the wicked claws of her gauntlets scraping against the palms.

“Her steel speaks to me,” she said, “It says it belongs to Scarlet, Erza. Titania. Queen of the fairies. The red knight. Destroyer of armies, slayer of demons.”

Gutride tilted her head as she heard the name. While Lydia looked like a knight from an age past, Gutride looked like she’d come right from an emo music concert. Her hair was cut in a page boy style, dark with purple highlights, a black t shirt with a skull hugging her chest, while she ironically wore the pleated skirt of a schoolgirl over tattered fishnet leggings. Her make up was dark, her eyes owlish behind a set of thick glasses, but her lips were pouty and luscious, painted the same violet as her highlights.

“Ooh!” her eyes lit up, “Ooh, ooh! I’ve heard of her! Wizard Weekly did a story on her in issue 24!” she grinned, “She’s smoking hot…”

Lydia opened her eyes and released her breath, her frown deepening as she looked around the battle. She noted how much they had gathered, how close they were to exfiltration. Had they found the Siphons of Hedrick yet?

“I know of her as well. She has two friends with her,” she said, “Both powerful. More than my men can handle.”

Gutride leaned over the bannister next to Lydia, grinning hopefully into her leader’s eyes.

“Not too much for us, though,” she bounced like an excited puppy, “We’re going to capture them, right? We can get a TON for guild wizards… or we can just keep ‘em. Hee hee.”

Lydia glanced at her lieutenant with faint reproach, then turned back to the battlefield.

“The longer we take, the more likely the king’s army arrives and we get nothing.”

“Come onnnn…” Gutride leaned closer, “You know you want to…”

Lydia sniffed, “If it happens, it happens. It’s possible she could defeat me.”

“Yeah… but doesn’t that make it more exciting?”

Lydia decided no to respond to that. She guarded her expression, scanning the battlefield for her other lieutenant.

“Where’s Alice? Has she found the Siphons?”

Gutride snorted, “No. Last I saw, she was trying on all the jewelry she found.”

Lydia nodded. The confrontation may be inevitable then. She had meant what she’d told her lieutenant; Erza Scarlet did have the power and skill to defeat her. If they lost here, everything they’d worked towards would be for nothing. Their plan for the Siphons would never come to fruition and they’d never have this chance again.

Yet despite herself, though she knew it was irresponsible, the thought of defeating Titania brought a small smile to her lips.

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