Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"Nothing wrong with that analogy," Lance replied as he looked down at those flying below them. His eyes were darting from one person to another, judging their powers and forming a plan.

[ Come up. ] On the other hand, Zack called out to his teammates while continuing to monitor Gajeel.

Despite what he had said, the chances of beating someone like Gajeel were very low. Zack was hoping that Snowie would be able to talk some sense into the steel dragon.

The second way was to try and fight the dragon from afar while the last way was to die trying. Out of all the options, Zack wanted to avoid the last option.

Emma, Hayden, Lisa, Ken, and after some hesitance, Jules hovered beside Zack. All of them then used inspect on the dragon as well.

Their expressions immediately turned grim as they looked toward Zack.

"If we attack it up close, we will be squatted like bugs but I don't think that we have strong long-range moves, except for Emma's attacks," Hayden observed. "But then too, we can't beat a dragon while depending on a single person."

"Well, I can always use my super move and be done," Emma muttered as her bow appeared in front of her.

Without listening to anyone's opinion on her decision, Emma started chanting the words for her super move.

'If Emma's moonlight arrow has the same effects on Gajeel, then we have a chance of beating him.' Zack knew that if the arrow was able to make all of the negative statuses affect the dragon, their chances of victory would go up to 80%.

"Prepare your strongest moves, be it close range or far range." Zack suddenly announced as he took off alone while keeping his eyes wide open.

He was currently searching for any human that might have brought Gajeel to Doogle mansions. The only other explanation for the appearance of such a beast was if multiple dragons appeared all around the world.

Due to the current circumstances, it wouldn't be a surprise if someone had managed to sneak up on such a location and record the entire thing to post it.

However, Zack didn't have the time to check that as he caught small figures dashing on the ground. His eyes managed to zoom in on the ground to see smaller dragons dashing towards the group of people.

It was clear from their synchronized movement and eyes that they were being controlled or had received extreme training.

If it was the latter, it proved that a human had indeed brought all of the beasts there.

'I don't think I will be able to look Snowie in the eye if I kill such small beasts…' Zack's eyes hovered over some of the dragons which looked as though they were barely a year old.

Many of them were small in height and also looked young. Zack even noticed a few dragons that reminded him of Snowie if she had a childish form.

'I have to summon her here.' While thinking that, Zack finished taking a look around the place and stared at Gajeel. The king of steel dragons was looking straight forward at the air and was occasionally releasing low roars.

The ground too trembled often and made more cracks appear in the Earth.

Even the mages who had taken more humans with them to the sky were facing problems. Their mana wasn't like Zack's or his friends and if they ran out of it, they would be out cold.

[ Try making a piece of anything non-metallic fly in the air and place all of the non-flying humans there. Then, you can focus only on that structure and save your mana. ] Zack suggested as he hovered beside his friends.

The wind magic users asked the earth ones for help and with that, they managed to find a solid floor of marble in the debris of Eva's mansion.

Using that, they created an elevated platform for those who weren't able to fly and placed them there.

The wind magic users then felt a huge load being lifted off their shoulders as they placed all of their focus on the piece of flying marble.

Zack's nodded his head in appreciation as he then looked at his inventory, which despite having only 25 storage blocks, was able to store multiple items in one block.

Only his weapons and the ten platinum gaming pods took one spot each while the rest of the stuff was cramped up into one small box.

'Good thing I was able to save all of these while being outside.'

Zack thought as he took out Gugnir and pointed the lance towards Gajeel. He couldn't use Chastiefol since Lance had been summoned using the spear.

If he changed the spear back to its original form, there was no knowing what would happen to Lance. So instead, Zack settled for the next best thing.

[ Lance, merge with me. ] He called out as the Phoenix flew forward and floated on top of his head.

[ The Vermilion Phoenix, Lance, wants to use combine with your body.

Compatibility: 100%

Yes/No? ]

'Yes.' Zack thought as he opened his status page simultaneously. Zack then spent every single one of the stat points he had gathered as his hair turned blue.

Two wings, one blue and one orange opened out from his back, tearing through his clothes in the process.

Zack's eyes brimmed with power as he got a hundred levels boost. That was the difference between merging and using someone as a vessel.

Those who could completely merge would have their levels combined and could use every single skill both of them had.

[ Feels weird to be linked completely. I can hear whatever your brain is thinking. ] Lance muttered from inside Zack as the Phoenix was currently linked with Zack's mind.

[ As if you are one to say. I can hear all those thoughts about female birds you keep thinking about. ] However, the same applied to Zack as he too could hear all of Lance's thoughts.

[ Fair point… ]

Zack then took a deep breath as he let blue flames emerge from his palm and wrap around Gugnir. The entire lance was now glowing due to the flames as Zack's grip on it tightened.

It was boss battle time.