Water Bound [Althea's B rank exam]

Althea slowed to a stop, taking a deep breath once.  Stretching her arms upwards she loosened her muscles that had been working to travel from Magnolia to Hargeon.  She had half assumed that she would’ve made it there in a more timely fashion, but she had gotten lost at some point, attempting a “shortcut” instead of sticking to the train tracks.  Well, not the entire way.  Althea had at first thought to use a train but quickly found that running there would be better.  In fact, she had broken through the window in her sickened state to quickly exit the vehicle instead of waiting for the next station like a normal person.  It was her second time being motion sick and the girl had assumed it would only get better from the first.  You know, less nausea, sweat, and barfing?

Well it didn’t.  In fact, Althea would say that the train ride was even worse than the boat one.  The logic of that was incredibly flawed though, maybe she just wasn’t as accustomed to her magic as she was now?  Was that even a legitimate factor?  Well either way the slayer had made it to the city of Hargeon to solve their sea monster problem.  It made sense that Rina, one of Fairy Tail’s aces, would send her on such a task seeing as she was actually rather proficient at dealing with those who utilized water.  Or maybe she wasn’t, Althea hadn’t ever really tested it out.  For some reason not many really used water magic, and when it was used the caster wasn’t really all too combat focused.  So in turn, the young mage had never fought someone who used it.

Althea glanced at the slip of paper with the request written onto it once more, wondering where in the world the said attack even was.  She expected for a water elemental to be pretty easy to find, but instead all seemed fine within Hargeon.  In fact, she was going to simply leave until a loud explosion-like boom echoed through the city’s streets, prompting the young mage to jump right onto the roof of a nearby house for a better vantage point.  But she found it hard to see anything seeing as many other buildings towered above the one she had chosen to occupy.  Slightly annoyed by the slight inconvenience, Althea set her narrowed blue gaze on a clock tower that was the tallest building she could see in that area or the city.  It was probably about a mile away from the building Althea was situated on but that didn’t stop her from bending her knees, building up the power needed for the vast leap.  It wasn’t that she was one hundred percent sure she would make it, just curious about whether or not she could.  Althea possessed a sizable amount of speed, strength, etc, but it may or may not be enough.  Who knew?  The prospect of testing herself just seemed appealing to her at that moment and using the clock tower would be way more convenient than moving around from roof to roof.

So, she jumped, rocketing towards the tall stone structure.  Of course several other buildings were in her trajectory but she had already prepared for that.  Spinning always helped with redirecting yourself in midair and Althea could always squirt a bit of water when she needed to push off of something.  So somehow the girl managed to land right on top of the clock tower, a gust of wind blowing through her blonde hair as she simply squatted there, surveying the area.  In no time at all she was able to find a large mushroom cloud ballooning in the air by the bay, prompting her to stand up.  Stretching her arms before engaging with the creature, Althea jumped off the towering stone building, crashing right onto the beach.  Sand flew into the air as she landed, and the impact from landing squarely on her feet was felt through her spine.  Althea would have to get used to it one of these days by jumping off a few mountains.  But future training was not the task at the moment, defeating the enemy before her was.  And Althea was slightly surprised to see the water elemental’s appearance.

She had half expected a floating ball of water, not some canine sort of creature.  It was about up to the girl’s chest, although Althea couldn’t say she was too tall in the first place.  A black-furred creature with piercing golden eyes and an electric blue mane and tail that looked more like ripples than actual fur.  It’s long ears stood erect and it walked on fours.  And as Althea surveyed the area even more she could see a few people splayed across the sands, blood pooling beneath them. “Hey, did you do this?”  She asked the otherworldly creature.  It didn’t reply verbally, only narrowing its golden eyes.  “If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll be getting.  Bring it on.”

The creature ran straight for her, but Althea jumped straight into the air, landing on its head.  Pushing off the beast’s head, Althea sought to perform a quick backflip before landing neatly on the beach.  But instead the slayer felt her body being pulled into her black-furred opponent.  Looking down, she realized that the mayor wasn’t joking when they stated the water elemental seemed to be made entirely from the substance.  Instinctively, Althea tried punching it on the side of it’s face, but that had no effect.  Pulling her fist out, the mage found that she was submerged up to her waist in the creature, and her ethernano was actually being drained.  She couldn’t stick around for much longer, but she was able to quickly devise a solution.  Raising up her hand she made a sort of chopping motion that in turn created a watery shockwave.  The creature recoiled from the blow that apparently was unhindered by its body, allowing Althea to wiggle her way out.  But as soon as she had found her way to the ground Althea launched herself straight back at the creature to deal a barrage of punches that all connected to the worn out beast.  And when Althea was finished, the water elemental was laid out motionless across the beach.  The fight was actually way easier than she had thought, but maybe that just meant she was advancing.  The magical signatures of those lying on the beach were nothing to sneeze at, and they probably had come to defeat the menace of Hargeon.

Suddenly a high pitched giggle erupted out of nowhere, the sound immediately agitating Althea.  Turning, she found the source of the sound:  A tall young woman with royal blue eyes and short gray hair that was styled as a bob.  Out of her head were two small black animal ears and the matching white streaked tail was draped over her lap.  In her hand was a key that she held out to the maned creature, it soon disappearing in a soft blue glow.  Althea’s eyes narrowed as she saw this, and the woman never cease her giggling, apparently finding the entire situation quite amusing.

“Badger ears and tail.”  Althea said finally.  “Oh!  You guessed it!  Nice one, most saw something dumb like fox!”  She replied, bringing her tail to her face and amorously rubbing it against it.  “It doesn’t look anything like those dirty things!  My tail is exquisite!  Unique!”  As the badger woman went on, the slayer’s fists clenched into fists at her side.  “Oh?  Are you upset hun?”  She asked, sighing as she playfully crossed her arms, displaying some sort of pouting expression. “I guess I’ll just be leaving then.  And I thought you’d be fun…” “You’re not leaving here.  If I let you go I technically won’t be solving the problem for the client.”  But the gray haired woman simply giggled once more.  “Oh, I’d like to watch you try hun!”

Suddenly a blast of light blared from behind the woman, causing Althea to instinctively shield her eyes.  “This was just a warning, so I’ll let you go with no injuries, alright hun?”  She said, turning and walking right into the light.  Althea rushed across the sand to meet her before she got away but alas she apparently wasn’t quick enough to rival the light-teleport-thing’s speed.  So, Althea sighed, turning away from where the badger woman once stood, focusing her attention all those that had been injured by the water elemental.

The clocktower struck 12.