Mashyuu and Ivyleaf in: The Masked Guild!

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Now, while the two men fought their own little battles throughout Clover Town, trying to destroy this mysterious guild, a certain teenaged girl and her exceed companion were in the town for a visit. Walking calmly past the town jail, the exceed suddenly jerked to a stop, slowly turning her head to face in the direction of the prison. "What is it, Hoshi?" Sorano asked, tilting her head curiously. The exceed would blink a few times, then her amber eyes would slowly begin to widen. "S-sorano-chan..." she whispered, slowly backing towards her partner, "Kyaaa!!" The exceed suddenly shoved the very confused letter mage. Or, she was very confused until her aural vision suddenly showed five mages rushing at them, escaping an aura she thought she recognized for a second. "E-ehh?" she said, not really in a flustered way, but more of an almost thoughtful way if you could imagine that.

"Wait, Hoshi, we should see what this is all about, first!" the letter mage pronounced sharply, her hands flicking out a few simple commands. Suddenly, rope wove itself into existence from letters, and a large mirror appeared before her. Just as her hands twitched the objects into position, the mage's rushed into the scene. Five mages barely saw the mirrors, tilted at special angles to disguise them. Five mages hardly noticed the low rope, with dull enough colors to almost match the ground. Five mages tripped over the rope, crashing into the silvery surface of the large mirror, fancy black robes only tripping them up even more. A calmly raised eyebrow from Sorano would cause the formerly terrified exceed to let loose a giggle despite herself, looking down at the pathetic scene. Then, moving at a surprising speed for such young mages, Sorano had throwing knives positioned besides two of the men's throats, while her foot was neatly positioned above another's pressure point. Hoshi, clutching one of Sorano's arrows was awkwardly pointing it at one man's neck with her sharp hind claws halfway out and somewhat directed at another man's eye.

It was enough, however, to scare the men, who began breathing quickly, afraid of what to do. Quickly running over their auras, the letter mage sighed, guessing from their guilty and scared emotions that they were criminals, likely run away from the jail. Their getup was rather amusing, unwieldy black robes and a heavy-looking golden mask. "Hmm, criminals, huh?" she said casually, lowering her toe some more on one who was attempting to move. If course, there was no way she would actually kill them, but they didn't know that. "Wonder how you escaped. Huh." Deciding to knock as many out as possible, she lowered the foot all the way on the man's pressure point, causing him to hiss in pain for a few seconds before he was out. For the two others she had under knife, the made tiny slits so she could keep track of their location, and began to locate pressure points on them as well.

Suddenly, the one under Hoshi suddenly burst off, knocking the exceed away. Now, the letter mage had two mages to face. With a heavy sigh, she would stand up, hitting the pressure points on her two mages before facing them. Well, yet another peaceful day had been interrupted, it would seem.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

A throwing knife quickly appeared in Sorano's hand, the letter mage poising as if to throw it. Her gaze slowly moved between the two masked men, wondering what to do now. The mages were evidently thinking about what to do next as well, glancing around uncertainly. Taking this brief chance while everyone was in a sort of lull, She let her hands quickly write out a simple spell. "Solid Script: Lightning!" As the bolt of electricity came thundering down from the sky, both used their arms or paws to shield their faces, Sorano on instinct, and Hoshi out of fear. The yelps of both mages' were heard, but when they uncovered their faces again, the mage's had huge scimitars out now. They had obviously been impacted, but we're now ready to go on the offensive.

Sorano backed away cautiously, her knife out and ready to face them. Or she was, until one suddenly appeared right next to her! Whirling around in surprise, Sorano was caught off guard and wildly swung at the mage who had appeared besides her. To her luck, it sliced slightly into their skin, causing them to flinch back a bit. Could they teleport or something? The distance had certainly been too far to jump that fast... The scimitar came swinging around now, causing Sorano to just barely dodge it, earning a small scratch on her leg. With a hiss of pain, Sorano quickly got back up, knife held in a reverse grip. This was tougher than she had expected... she stabbed forward with Kagayaku, but was blocked by the opponent's blade. Another hiss of pain resounded as the letter mage staggered back from the impact. Physical fights were her greatest weakness, and she knew she would have to use magic of some sort.

"Solid Script: Hide," She said calmly, suddenly disappearing before her opponent's eyes. As he or she blinked in confusion, they would find themselves experiencing a moment of sharp pain, then falling down, unconscious. "One down, Hoshi," she said coldly, gently touching the exceed so Hoshi could sense where she was. She placed one throwing knife before Hoshi, and called up her location map. It would show Hoshi wherever she was at the moment. As she prepared to fight the other one, she heard sounds of fighting from nearby as well. "Hm?" she muttered, looking up, two figures eclipsed the sun, locked in battle. Blinking, she looked again, realizing that she recognized an aura. Mashyuu from Sabertooth. What could he be doing here? A job of some sort?

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Currently, Sorano had the advantage. Being invisible, her opponent was blind to her, blinking in confusion and grabbing, slicing, stabbing around randomly to try and find her. She calmly walked past his blows, checking to be sure that Hoshi was well hidden. In such a position, she doubted much effort would be needed to subdue him. After all, though he was a mage, an arrow to his knees should still make him fall. Pulling out Moriko and stringing it swiftly, she nocked an arrow and aimed. Releasing it at a carefully measured moment, it pierced his knee, suddenly becoming visible as he was hit. A muffled yelp of pain came from behind that mask, the man crumpling to the ground from the sudden loss of one leg's use.

Quickly preparing to down him in his other leg, she suddenly hissed in shock and pain as the man was suddenly practically on top of her, scimitar slicing to the side. Barely avoiding the hit, the letter mage gasped in surprise. She had forgotten! So both mages' could do these odd jumps? To her luck, she had been prepared, and one of Kagayaku was in the man's leg before he could blink. As he sank to his knees from both legs being disabled for the moment, Sorano quickly wrenched the knife out with a twist to cause extra damage, then produced a slight bit of water to wash the knife with Solid Script. Now, she could easily bend down and out pressure on the vein that would cause him to black out, then rolled him to the side so he was pumped in with his equally unconscious companions. After checking to ensure none were in a fatal condition, she quickly wrapped a bandage around a few mages' legs to slow any bad bleeding.

Now that these were taken care of, Sorano packed away her bow again, and retrieved all her knives, hooking them onto the loop. Shielding her eyes against the sun, she squinted upwards, trying to see Mashyuu. Realizing his aura had shifted, she lowered her eyes to see the faint glimmer of it, combating another mage. It was a shockingly strong aura, and Sorano wondered how Mashyuu might be dealing. Shrugging, she decided to simply head over and check things out, looking for any more of these masked mages on the way.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

As she neared the area where the two mages were battling, she would turn to check for Hoshi's presence behind her. Seeing that the exceed was definitely there, she turned back to observe the scene e before them. Her eyes carefully darted across the scene, observing how each man was doing. Mashyuu's opponent was a frighteningly powerful one, immense spells spilling from him and practiced movements intercepting or dodging Mashyuu's hits However, the dragon slayer was certainly not to be underestimated. His spells and strength were an excellent match against the masked mage. She felt that in the end, they would only end the fight with both sides suffering much injury. Unless, of course, she threw in a little extra. Having done spells such as these thousands of times over for her own dragon slaying teammates, the letter mage quickly drew out letters in the air.

Freezing the letters in their mist-like form, she cast it over the field, right behind Mashyuu, and built up the size of the words some more. Finally, she released the words, letting them slam to the ground, causing the ground to shake a little. Huge letters could be seen towering up behind the dragon slayer, spelling out the word "earth". The miniature mountain of sorts was formed completely from earthen material, which should be perfect for an earth dragon slayer. Leaving that there, she would suddenly spin around after feeling the presence of additional mages nearby. Her knife quickly shot into the shadows where the presence had been felt, earning her a yell of pain and surprise.

As she quickly drew it back out before anyone could grab onto her hand, she drew up the small holographic screen with the person's location charted on it. At the moment, it showed the figure scrambling backwards, nursing his or her wound. Suddenly, silver-haired mages burst out from all around her, spears bristled at her. Sorano scowled. What a pain. First of all, her most important move would be to get these people all out of the way. In one quick sweep of her arm, mirror shards burst out, one pointed at each mage and shot at an astonishing speed towards places such as their arms and legs.

Most hit their targets, earning her yells and sudden falling back of the spear wielders, while the letter mage quickly pulled up a thin barrier around herself. "Solid Script: Barrier." As the transparent shield rose up around her. It spun around her quickly, bouncing to wherever she had need of defense. She could cast spells through it easily, but enemies would find they had a hard time penetrating it.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

It was very easy for a mage to assume that Sorano Granon was a supportive mage. I mean, who would think that a girl like her, one who spent her time drifting through stacks of ancient musty books and taking care of all the paperwork in Fairy Tail could actually fight? Not to mention her lack of strength physically, with pretty average speed for someone her age. Who could imagine? However, whoever thought this would have to remember that Sorano was an extremely independent person, preferring to rely on herself than to potentially put her life in danger with other people. Her extraordinary reading speed improved her general knowledge and understanding, and her aural sight combined with Luna gave her access to almost anyone's emotions. She had even begun to teach herself martial arts and the usage of simple weapons such as the bow and arrow and throwing knives.

As a result, most people underestimated her. This was good. This was very good. She gained a but of an advantage with this, and fights almost always started off well. However, she could tell, now, that the mage's were wary of her. They were wondering if she hid any more secrets. Her mind calm and controlled, she easily let her hands flow through the air, spelling out letters as they slowly appeared in their misty forms. As she was slowly turning visible again, she suddenly released a wall of fire, letting it barrel into the mage's all around her while they still cautiously recovered from her initial attack. The fire warded them back even more efficiently, and Sorano would take gesture slightly to Hoshi. The exceed nodded, and the two shot into the air with a flap of Hoshi's feathered wings. From above, with the barrier shielding them on the bottom, they were in a considerably better position.

A spear was hurled upwards by one mage, and barely caught by Sorano. Redirecting its path, she let it very conveniently drop down on them, blunt end facing down. After all, it would be inconvenient if they were killed. She didn't want to be kicked out of her guild after all.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

One mage, knocked out. Sorano had one less mage to take care of, but it wasn't much with ten mages in all. To cast her next spell, she needed to reach the ground. She raised a hand with her wrist jutted out downwards, a signal that she was about to use a spell that required going to the ground. Hoshi tightened her grip to show Sorano that she got the message. Immediately ducking down, Hoshi rushed towards the ground at full speed, feathery wings straightened behind her to speed her descent. Spears were thrown, one clipping Sorano's arm and causing a red gash to appear. The letter mage brushed it off, clenching her teeth and trying to ignore the pain.

Upon landing, she released a spell she had had written out but unreleased, loosing it's abilities in the area. As Mashyuu was too far away for its range to benefit him, she chose Solid Script Dark instead, one that benefited her the most instead of people around her. As the darkness drew up the mages' health, she could feel her own abilities increasing, her own energy returning. Now, to quickly knock each one else in the simplest way. Holding Luna out in front of her, she tapped into each mage's aura, gently placing Hoshi's paw on it. The effect was immediate. Some mages suddenly fell with the onslaught of the constant fear Hoshi was in, the horror overwhelming them.

Emotions. They were something that indisputably made up much of the core of Sorano's life. As a child, they had been a barrier. As a monster, almost, they had been her power and her downfall. As a mage, they were the things she studied the most, that big thing she was lacking. And she understood now. Everything people felt were based off of either fear, or love. Love was the ultimate source, but fear was an emotion that existed side by side with love. It could drive people to do anything, surpass their common sense. Running up to the first one as Hoshi released the shield, she quickly spun around, pressing fingers into the pressure points of two mages. Three, four. The hilt of her blade slammed into the brain of two more. Quick slices of two legs, followed by neat presses on veins. The last three she dispatched with quick stabs of her knives and hits on the head.

When they all lay defeated at last, she was covered in scratches from the almost reckless battle, breathing hard. However, the dome's magic had provided her with enough hp for quite a while. Noticing that Mashyuu's battle was done as well, she rushed over quickly. After a quick survey of the scene, she asked, "Mashyuu-san, I'm sorry to ask this while you are in pain, but they are important questions. Point One: is the opponent dead or merely severely injured? Point Two: In what areas to you feel you have the most injury? I will try to be of assistance."

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sorano's eyes glanced over at the warden, running a brief examination. She had checked the Sabertooth mage already, and had seen that besides his magic being shockingly low, his health would be manageable. Still, he seemed to have a rather bold and potentially dangerous style of fighting that caused her to be concerned that he might have received worse injury than he had. She couldn't understand the behavior of people who fought that way, even after seeing the same traits in near all her teammates and many guildmates. But then, there were many things that were difficult for her to comprehend, social things, the way minds worked. After all, emotions were a huge part of the typical person's mind and understanding, something she was lacking in.

After ensuring that there was still a weak aura glowing around him, and that he had no injuries too serious, she would turn back to help Mashyuu up. "Apollo-san?" Sorano said curiously, tilting her head to the side. "I thought If noticed a flicker of his aura earlier... Odd. He had seemed to be chasing some of the mages back there, but suddenly stopped." The letter mage quickly cast her aural vision around the area, piercing through a few walls. No sign of her guildmate and ace. Sorano nodded in response to Mashyuu's suggestion. Seemed logical enough. Raising an eyebrow as Mashyuu caused the earth wall to crumble down, she decided to leave the oddity be. She would probably figure it out over time if she met the Sabertooth mage much, but for now, it would remain a mystery.

Moving over to both men, Sorano cast a quick spell, rewriting out the letters for heal. They dissipated into a fine mist that would return health to anyone who breathed it in, then followed Mashyuu out of the area. Upon learning that Mashyuu and Apollo had been on a job, she nodded slowly. She wouldn't mind not taking the reward, but most definitely wouldn't refuse it. It might be a polite gesture, but not very sensible. Hoshi would follow slowly, as Sorano thought, "...I hope they don't send Fairy Tail the damage bill again..."