Don't Disturb the Dragon...(Private)

In the Forgotten Desert, just outside of the Sabertooth guildhall but far enough away so that he wouldn't be interrupted, the figure of the Iron Dragon Slayer could be seen stood in a state of calm. A few meters away from him stood a small feline creature, his Exceed, Azrael. I have to be stronger...smarter...faster... A deep breath in as he knelt down, placing a hand on the ground. "Iron Dragon's Thorns." he spoke calmly, then looked up as a number of thick iron thorns burst up through the ground up to twenty meters in front of him.

"I hope you're ready with that timer Azrael." Hirai's face cracked into a smile as his hand began to turn ever so slightly silvery. The Exceed smiled confidently and nodded. "Let's do this then." The Dragon Slayer got to his feet and brought his now iron hand up to his left hand, rolling his wrist. "3...2...1...GO!"

Hirai was immediately off the ground running, his fist moving out to his right side. "Sword Arm of the Iron Dragon!" he yelled out, causing his already iron-covered arm to change in size and shape, becoming a long blade. He swung the sword up in time to slash one of the thorns clean in half, before proceeding to move between each of the thorns and wittle them until there was almost no sign of them ever have been there. His pace was good and it wouldn't take too long to finish. Maybe he'd beat his personal best?

''OI!'' A female voice was heard through the Forgotten Desert, near the Sabertooth Guildhall. A girl, around 19, was running after some sort of creature that held something in its mouth. The girl was running as quickly as she could manage to without tripping in the sand and falling. Why tripping and falling? She was wearing high heels, so the slightest wronge step could get her to fall. '' GIVE ME BACK MY RAPIER YOU LITTLE THIEF!'' She screamed, as she continued running after the beast, but her speed was nothing compared to its, thy it was a creature used in running through the endless deserts while Antonia was used to walk around the guild or the city, not the desert. The difference was major.

Finally, she tripped and almost fell, but gladly she had a really good balance, so quickly got in a good position, as before. A nerve was playing right above her left eye, and her rabbit ears were twitching in annoyance every now and then. Lifting her hand she wrote a rune with her nail in mid-air, and activated it. '' Ultimate Écriture: Slow Down!'' The beast that had her rapier in its mouth's speed decreased drastically, making it appear as if the beast was on slow mo. Antonia smiled in triumph, but her smile faded slightly as the creature almost hit what appeared to be a cat-like thingy, that possibly was the pet of some sort of guy that was training here, in the forgotten desert. She first took her rapier from the beast's mouth and kicked it away, near the guy that was training, annoyed, and crouched next to the cat, worried. '' Are you okay? Did that thing hit?'' She ased while placing her rapier in its place.

It seemed Azrael had been completely unfazed by the beast running towards him, focused solely on what Hirai was doing. It wasn't until a voice spoke to him that his attention was broken and the exceed turned to face the owner. It was a young woman, probably around Hirai's age, with long flowing pink hair with matching bunny ears atop her head. At first the Exceed thought they were decorative, but a second inspection showed that they were in fact her real ears. He looked back around at Hirai in time to catch the slayer destroying the last thorn and quickly fumbled with his timer to ensure he stopped it on time.

Unfortunately for Antonia, it didn't matter whether Azrael was successful or not. Hirai stormed to where the bunny girl and his feline friend were and stood over the girl with a clear expression of sheer annoyance. "It's rude to interrupt someone when they're working you know..." he growled, forgetting to dispel his sword arm so that he looked all the more menacing.

Antonia looked up to see a guy, maybe around her age, and it was certainly the guy that had been training before. She looked at his hand and saw it was not a normal flesh-and-bones arm, but an iron sword. Her eyebrow shot up, and her arm rested on Dawn, her rapier, ready to fight back in case this dude attacked her now all out of the blue. She didn't interrupt his training on purpose, to begin with, she had just ran at this direction in order to recover her rapier. She didn't have to be so rude.

'' I am sorry for interrupting you, but you should know that I didn't mean it. I was running after that beast over there, my sole purpose was to retrieve my weapon, not to interrupt your training. And I was willing to check if this cat over here is okay, because the beast almost hit it.'' Antonia answered, trying to keep her voice calm and careless, and make it less cold than she wanted it to be, while she laid a hand on the cat's head to pet it. She wondered what type of mage was this guy, since he managed to change his hand into nothing less than a metal sword. Could he be, per pure casuality, a Slayer?

Hirai's eyes followed the movement of the girl's hand for a moment as her arm rested on her weapon. For a moment he wondered why she'd even consider him a threat, but it soon clicked as he looked down at his own arm. Ooooh yeaaaah. Forgot about that... he thought to himself before dispelling his Sword Arm and crossing his arms. "Your rapier would've done you no good by the way." he added. He then remained silent as she explained why she'd so rudely interrupted his training. In all fairness she had a reasonable excuse. He was even willing to forgive her until she went to pet Azrael, at which he quickly moved and gripped her wrist. "It's also rude to touch things that don't belong to you." he added coldly. Azrael looked up at him pleadingly though, causing the Dragon Slayer to loosen his grip with a sigh. "Fine...I'll believe you."

Azrael looked up at Antonia and cleared his throat before he spoke. "Hello there Miss. Don't worry, I'm not hurt at all. My name is Azrael and this is Hirai." the Exceed spoke, a cheeky smile appearing on his face. "You're from Sabertooth aren't you?"

As Antonia watched the person in front of her change his metal sword back to a hand with no effort, making her believe that her theory about the guy in front of her being a Metal Slayer. Her eyes drifted off to the cat for a second, and she could swear that it's an exceed, some sort of cat-like animal that always walked around slayers. She had also heard that exceeds are quite similar to their owners, but from what she had seen by far she could only say that she liked the exceed more than his owner. She smiled at him, her hand still on her rapier as her eyes drifted off to the guy. '' Of course it wouldn't, at least not against you, considering that you are possibly a Metal Slayer. I wouldn't attack you with my rapier, I don't want it eaten.'' She said, a small smile on her face.

She then turned to the exceed, her pink ears twitching slightly in interest. She smiled at him, slightly glancing towards Hirai to make sure that he is not going to attack her. Her eyes remained on him for a second, and then she looked at the exceed again. ''Hello Azarael, nice to meet you. I am Antonia Leaviaette, but you can call me either Antonia or Levi, whichever you like better.'' She smiled at Azarael. '' And yes, I am from Sabertooth. Are you two from Sabertooth too?'' She asked, glancing at Hirai with a small smile.