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Fight Me, Bite Me	By : Rhov Category: +. to F > Fairy Tail Views: 39446 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail is the property of Hiro Mashima. I make no money, I just do this for my own pleasure.

Chapter List
- 56
- 57
- 58
Chapter 57
Flames and Frost
Gray's shirt went flying, followed soon by his trousers. By the time he reached a rocky ledge that he calculated was the best location on the mountain, all he wore were his shoes, necklace, and boxers. This was going to take extreme focus, and clothes got in the way.
He had frozen large areas of land before, iced entire landscapes, created walls that stretched hundreds of meters. Never had he created an ice barrier this massive. To encase the snow of an entire mountain … he had never heard of any ice wizard doing something this vast.
Still, he could try.
No … he simply had to. If he failed, the villagers down in the valley would suffer from the flood of melting snow from the volcano's awakening.
He closed his eyes and dug down deep. He felt the dark power in the lowest reaches of his soul. He allowed the demonic energy to flow through him. His skin began to darken to black. He felt intense magic coursing through him, fluttering his hair. The ground around him began to frost over even without conscious effort, freezing purely from the excess of power.
"Ice Devil's…"
He clapped his hands together and slammed them onto the ground.
"… Bulwark!"
Ice-Make Rampart was a challenging spell that used to consume nearly all of Gray's magic. Bulwark was a massive step up from that and made the Rampart look like a child's pillow fort in comparison.
The wall of ice soared a hundred meters high, and it stretched out, covering the land around the mountain, sixty-five kilometers ringing the volcano like a frosty crown. Gray felt the ice growing, stretching, plowing through anything in its path. Trees and bushes were either sliced apart or fully encased in ice.
On and on it stretched. Minutes ticked by, and Gray began to pant. Perhaps he was not running around and fighting, but his magic flowed out constantly, no letting up. He could not afford the slightest weakness in the barrier.
He looked down the mountain. All those farms, the crops, livestock, the idyllic town whose church bell was still ringing in warning. So many lives could end if this did not work.
He could feel the ice wall continuing, ringing the entire mountain. He shouted as he dug up every bit of magic.
Ten more kilometers.
Five more.
One kilometer left.
"Go!" he screamed, sweating despite the frosty chill steaming off his pale and black skin.
Finally, he felt the two ends meet somewhere on the far side of the mountain. Gray collapsed to his knees, panting, utterly drained. He fought against the sweet darkness of unconsciousness.
Just then, he heard more rumbling. Wearily, he looked beyond the bulwark. A massive landslide was rushing toward him, wiping out trees in its way.
"Let's see if it worked," muttered Gray.
He did not back away from the thundering avalanche. He watched it charging downhill, closer and closer. Gray glared at it, silently challenging Mother Nature to defeat his magic. The ground shook; the air roared with ice and debris. The monstrous rush of snow howled as it smashed into the ice barrier.
Some of the avalanche was higher than the barrier. A small splash of snow and pine needles landed on Gray's shoulder. He dusted it off and looked at the rest of the snow pressed against the clear bulwark.
He did it! It worked.
"Take care of the rest, Natsu," he whispered.
Then Gray flopped onto the ground and wiped the sweat from his brow. The black faded from his skin as he groaned from exhaustion and dropped his head back onto the grass. He closed his eyes against the bright blue sky. He hoped that was all he needed to do for a while, because it would take time to recover his magic.
He felt the mountain rumbling again. He opened his eyes and saw sooty smoke clouding the brilliant sky.
"You better not let it erupt, flame-brain. I'm not sure if my ice can hold back lava."
Natsu tried to breathe shallower.
He could smell the fumes in the air. Some of it was familiar. He grew up with an active volcano, after all.
However, Igneel had taught him that while his lungs could adapt to the gases released by normal fire, magma was totally different. It contained toxic gas that not even a Fire Dragon Slayer's lungs could filter.
# # #
"But Dad, what if it erupts?"
"Simple. Don't breathe."
"Simple, you say!"
"Fine. Then hold your breath as long as you can. The heat alone shouldn't hurt you, but lava will."
"I'll just eat it. It's probably tasty."
"Idiot! Lava isn't fire. It's rock! It's rock that's so hot, it's turned to liquid. Can you eat rocks?"
"N-No…"
"Then don't even think about messing with lava. It will burn you, and the gas can kill you. Just, for crying out loud, don't set off the volcano again, you foolish boy!"
"Tee-hee! But it was fun watching you do that."
"That was dangerous, even for me. Our lungs are the same, and the vapors could have killed me as well. In fact … cough-cough … I'm not feeling so well. Hack, cough, hurk!"
"Dad! Dad, what's wrong?"
"Oooh, so woozy, so woozy. Looks like YOU have to cook dinner tonight."
"Ehhhhh! You faker, you're lying."
"Cough, cough! It's no good. I feel so faint. Oooh, so dizzy."
"I'm not cooking, you lazy old dragon."
# # #
Natsu chuckled to himself at the memory. That had been the day he accidentally set off the volcano. Normally, it only erupted to the west of the mountain, and then only a little. The cave was to the east and upwind, so they never got lava or gases. Normal eruptions were harmless while inside the cave, but that eruption nearly swallowed the whole cave with Natsu still in it.
It was the last time Igneel ever let him set foot into the heart of the volcano. He was heading there now for the first time since he was a rascally child.
The heat grew immense, hotter than a normal flame, but still tolerable to Natsu. He pressed his hand against the scarf. Another use for the scarf was as a filter precisely for this purpose. It was not a perfect filter, but it blocked out some of the worst volcanic fumes: arsenic, mercury, iridium, sulfur dioxide, and hydrochloric acid which would have eaten away at his lungs.
The long tunnel led down, and with each step the heat grew stronger. Natsu began to wonder if Gray really could make it down here without special protective gear. Was his ice strong enough to make it this far into the scalding heat?
Of course it was! Natsu had faith in Gray's magic. He would find a way to make it down here.
At last, the tunnel opened to a vast chamber. Far below, magma bubbled with agitation. The chamber had been sealed for centuries, slowly building power. Now, all that stored energy was surging. Natsu stared down at the red and yellow glow, and he could see the magma surging higher, burping and bubbling, splashing up the walls and dripping viscously back into the churning, rising lake. He had hoped it would not erupt for six hours. He realized with a tremble that he would be lucky if it held off even another thirty minutes.
"Time to test myself against you, Igneel," he said to himself, and Natsu lowered the scarf from his mouth, instantly cringing at the overwhelming fumes. "I hope you can see how much stronger I've become."
Then, despite knowing the toxins would start to erode his lungs, Natsu took a deep breath.
Gray jolted awake, hardly even realizing he had passed out. How much time had passed? The snow that had smashed into his barrier had liquefied. The ground under Gray was hot to the touch. He jumped up and realized the back of his leg had heat blisters where rocks had gotten too hot. The grass he had fallen asleep on was wilting, and he smelled smoke somewhere as fragile plants caught on fire from the volcano's surge.
Gray wondered if he should get off the mountain. Natsu had said something about being hotter than a volcano. If the heat was already this bad, how much worse would it get.
However, as he felt the ground rumble, Gray worried about Natsu. It sounded like, whatever he was planning, it would be dangerous. Natsu even asked Gray to come get him. If he left the mountain, he might be too late to rescue Natsu.
He was not even sure when it would be safe. They had no lacrimas to communicate. He would have to guess when Natsu finished his magic and it was safe enough to enter the volcano.
Now that he thought about it, how the hell was he going to rescue Natsu out of the heart of a volcano? People normally wore heat suits for that sort of thing. An encased suit of ice might work, but only if it lasted long enough.
To make something that elaborate, he needed to regain his magic. Gray was still feeling lightheaded. Still, he placed a hand on the Bulwark and sensed the entire perimeter. He did not feel a break in the magic, so the barrier was holding.
However, as Gray stood there, liquid dropped onto his shoulder and scalded his skin. He hissed in pain and looked up. The snow had not only melted; it was boiling. Gray looked at his ice barrier. It was sweating, but it still stood. Gray placed his hand on the wall again and sensed inward.
It was thinner!
It had not broken, but the wall was slowly melting as the mountain's snow boiled into steam.
"Natsu, hurry," he whispered. As a large bubble popped and more boiling water burst over the edge of the wall, Gray jumped backward to escape being burned again. "Hurry!"
Natsu stopped breathing flames and cursed. It wasn't working!
Granted, he had not personally seen Igneel defeat a volcano with his flames. He only saw the effects.
To be hotter than a volcano.
Hotter than magma.
To heat the rock beyond liquid.
To vaporize the magma!
Just how hot did he have to get? His flames had power, but he had not focused as much on pure temperature. After all, he normally fought humans and the occasional monster. He didn't want to vaporize people! Erza would kill him if he began to wipe whole towns off the map without a single trace.
Still, he had to get hotter than this. It wasn't enough. Gray was counting on him. All those villagers would die if the volcano erupted.
He held onto the rocky wall. The toxic gas was getting to him. His cheeks felt numb already.
"One more breath," he whispered.
He had to do it!
Because if this did not work … Natsu doubted that he could escape the volcano in time. The magma was rising dangerously higher.
Natsu took a breath, but his lungs convulsed. He coughed it all out, and with it blood sprayed past his mouth. Natsu felt his lungs blistering with poison, burning in a way his body did not like. This was not from heat.
He was dying! Poisoned to death!
"I have to," he sneered.
Gray was somewhere on this mountain. If it erupted, Gray would probably die as well. Maybe not from the heat, but from the toxic gas.
He would risk it all to save Gray.
He took another deep breath, and the flames shooting out his mouth aimed at the magma.
Hotter! It needed to be hotter!
His flames went from red to blinding white. Natsu had to close his eyes against the sheer brilliance. Hotter! He dug down deep, tapping into all the magic hidden within him.
Igneel, help me do at least this much. For Gray. To save Gray. To save the man I love!
Natsu felt an intense heat far beyond any flame he had used before. His clothes turned to ash, all but the white scarf, and crumbled to the ground. The air itself seemed to be on fire. When at last he opened his eyes, the magma was vanishing, boiled into a gaseous form. The caldera dropped lower, lower, magma boiling away.
Natsu stopped and laughed. He did it!
Yet the gas in the air, all of that vaporized rock, began to cool and crystallize in his lungs. Natsu coughed as his lungs hardened. He had seen this happen to Igneel. What had he done, though? Natsu could not remember. He never asked. He had just laughed in excitement without realizing how dangerous it was for his adopted father.
It was like there was no more oxygen in the area. He grabbed at his throat. Air! All around him was poison, and his lungs were filling up with vaporized rock.
Natsu stumbled away from the lip of the volcano. The mountain was safe now, the rumblings were lessening, but Natsu could no longer move, breathe, anything. His vision began to grow darker.
"Gray," he gasped, blood filling his mouth. "H-Help."
Then he collapsed.
Gray covered his mouth. Whatever Natsu was doing, the air had turned foul. However, the trembling was lessening. The mountain was calming down.
Had he done it?
He remembered what Natsu said. "Just warning you now: when I do this, you might have to come get me. When we went to the hot springs, there was a path to the left of the lake. Follow it. It leads down. Keep following, it's a long ways, but it eventually leads to the heart of the volcano. Protect your skin and use one of your ice bubbles to breathe; the gas is poisonous to normal people."
He was glad the wind was blowing strong now. The toxic gas should disperse before it reached any people living in the valley. Now, he had to go get Natsu out of there before the idiot killed himself.
Gray ran back to the cave entrance. Already, the heat inside was torturous. He jogged to the hot spring they had used earlier that morning. The lake, once calm and mildly hot, was boiling away. Very little water was left, and the steam in the air made it hard to breathe.
Then Gray felt a sharp burn in his lungs. Poison!
"Ice-Make: Siebe!"
A layer of ice covered over his skin, as well as a bubble of ice over his head. It gave him a limited air supply, but the ice made sure it was fresh air. Now, without his skin ready to blister from the heat and his lungs burning from the toxic gas, Gray ran. If it was this bad after just a minute inside the volcano, Natsu was in serious trouble.
He ran down a narrow path, a steep slant into the heart of the volcano. Even with his protective suit of ice, he felt the heat trying to melt it all. Natsu must have really gone overboard to make it this hot.
Finally, the ground flattened out. He saw a red glow ahead, and on the ground was a body.
"Natsu!" he screamed.
Gray ran forward and rolled Natsu onto his back. He was naked, and the char on his skin showed that the clothes had burned away from the insane heat. Blood dripped from his mouth, and Gray saw that his chest was not moving.
"Shit!" He looked around. There was no way to do mouth-to-mouth here. The air in his suit was already running low, and all the air around was poison.
Gray cast another full-body suit around Natsu. Maybe the ice could filter at least some of the air. Then he hefted Natsu over his shoulder and ran back up the passage. It felt like forever, and Gray was terrified that maybe the worst had already happened. This was a nightmare, his worst nightmare.
"Don't die. You promised not to die. Don't you dare die," he kept repeating.
He ran out of the cave. Although the air was still bad, it would have to be enough. He placed Natsu onto the ground and banished the ice that protected their bodies. He felt Natsu's neck. He had a pulse at least, but his chest was still. Gray wiped some of the blood away from Natsu's mouth, took a deep breath, leaned over, and breathed into Natsu's mouth. He felt a tight resistance against him.
"Come on, breathe," he urged. He took another breath, smelled the foulness in the air, ignored it, and placed his mouth back over Natsu's, breathing in deeply. It was like his lungs were froze. "Why isn't it working?" Gray screamed. He tried once again, making sure his mouth was sealed around Natsu's and exhaled hard into him.
He heard something that sounding horrific, like crunching rocks coming from Natsu's lungs.
"The hell?" he whispered.
Natsu had turned the magma into vapor.
He had inhaled that vapor.
The rock had cooled and coated the inside of his lungs.
Gray realized with horror what that meant. Natsu's lungs were lithified, coated with solid rock, and there was nothing his ice magic could do to cure him.
"There has to be something. There has to be," he said, thinking quickly.
There was one thing. It was dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. It could permanently damage Natsu's lungs.
It was the only thing Gray could think of, though.
"Don't you dare die," Gray said again.
With tears in his eyes, he took another breath. This time, when he breathed into Natsu's mouth, he froze the air going in. He felt the air filling the spaces of Natsu's lungs, freezing, filling the entire empty cavity of his chest with solid ice. Natsu's lips turned blue from the cold as his entire chest and lungs were coated in ice.
Then Gray placed his hand on Natsu's chest. This was so dangerous, but it had to work. It had to!
He pressed down so hard, it would have broken the ribs of a normal person. He heard the crystallized rock crackle in Natsu's lungs. He instantly dispelled the ice, and it flowed out in frosty wisps. Tiny bits of the ice floated up out of Natsu's mouth, taking with it encased chunks of rock. Natsu's chest actually moved a little.
Gray did it again, filling Natsu's lungs solid, that way it protected the lungs from the rock breaking free. Another hard compression, crunching down the lithified lungs, and then the ice flowed out of Natsu's mouth, sweeping clean the bits that broke free.
Natsu suddenly gasped. His eyes opened, and he struggled to breathe. He panicked as he felt the stiffness in his lungs, and he looked up at Gray with wide, horrified eyes, grasping at his throat.
"Keep calm. I think this is working, but I'm sure it hurts like hell."
Natsu could not move his lungs enough to talk. All he could do was look up silently at Gray, telling him without words to help him no matter the pain it involved.
Gray leaned over, and Natsu was shocked at what he thought was a kiss. Instead, icy air fill his lungs, instantly freezing. Natsu panicked more, now solidly frozen.
"Relax. This will hurt, but bear with it."
Gray did the same as before, smashing down Natsu's chest, hearing the crunching of rocks breaking, and this time Natsu screamed at the agony. He remembered Igneel had an issue with his lungs. He had done something, definitely not this. What was it?
Ice floated out of his mouth, gagged him like he was vomited glass, and bits of rock was drawn out of his lungs.
Rock. In the lungs.
He remembered!
Natsu waved for Gray to stop. He turned around, got onto his hands and knees, and kept his head down. Then he heated his core body. He heated the air in his lungs. Gray had the right idea and was using ice to clear the lithified air passage, but there was a better way.
Heat the rock again!
Natsu coughed harshly, and Gray thought he was vomiting. However, what came out seared the ground under Natsu, and Gray had to leap back as he felt the intense heat.
He was coughing out lava.
"Shit, Natsu!" he exclaimed. "Well, I guess that works."
Natsu cough-vomited again, until he felt his lungs cleared out. The lava was already cooling to black under him. Then with tears in his eyes, he looked up at Gray.
"Th-Thanks," he said in a grating, weak voice as his throat felt scratched and burned.
"Are you gonna be okay?"
"I … think so," Natsu said in weariness.
Gray dropped to his knees beside Natsu and hugged him. His tears hit him hard, and Gray began to sob. Natsu was so weak, he barely had the strength to pat Gray's back.
"I thought…" Gray snuffled and hid his snotty nose in Natsu's scarf. "You weren't breathing, and I couldn't do anything. I thought … I was afraid you … dammit!" he yelled, too overwhelmed to talk clearly.
Natsu closed his eyes against sleepiness. "You saved my life, and you saved those people. Thank you. I knew you'd come for me."
Gray sniffed again in tears, but then he coughed as his lungs burned with the vapors.
Natsu pulled back and looked at him in worry. "There's still toxic gas here. We both need to get down the mountain."
"You need clothes," he pointed out.
Natsu looked down and realized he was only wearing his scarf.
"Stay here," Gray told him. "I'll run inside long enough to get you something to wear."
"Then take this." Natsu handed over his scarf. "It filters some of the gas. Don't lose it!"
Gray took the soft, scaly scarf and wrapped it around his face. He reentered the cave, ran to where their supplies were, and yanked out only some trousers. He did not bother with shoes or a shirt. He ran back out as quickly as he could, but he found Natsu unconscious on the ground.
"Natsu!" he shouted, yet he heard a loud snore. Gray relaxed and shook his head. "You really did go all out."
He carefully pulled the trousers onto Natsu's legs and zipped it up. Then he draped the scarf back around Natsu's neck. He sat beside the Dragon Slayer, watching him snoring. Natsu was so adorable at times.
The fear of losing him still shivered in Gray's heart. That had been too close. Overwhelmed with thankfulness, Gray leaned over and kissed Natsu's forehead.
"Can you hear me?" he whispered. Natsu was still snoring. "I … just have to say it. After a scare like that, I have to." He caressed Natsu's cheek and smiled down at him. "I … love you. So don't ever scare me like that again. Because I still need to tell you one day."
He leaned over and kissed Natsu's forehead again.
"I love you. Dammit … so much! Don't die on me. Don't you dare die on me before I can tell you."
He would definitely tell him.
One day.
This showed Gray that life could end so suddenly. He didn't even need the fear of an imagined curse on saying three words. It could end simply because they were wizards and did dangerous stuff all the time. Life was so fragile, so precious.
He was wasting his life being afraid.
"Definitely, I'll get well enough to tell you," Gray said with conviction in his heart. If he had to see his therapist every day, he would, if it meant he could one day get over his terror and nightmares and finally tell Natsu how he felt.
Gray heard a noise. He saw that some of the villagers had dared to climb up the volcano. He leaped to his feet as he saw them.
"What are you doing here?" he shouted. "It's dangerous."
Natsu roused at the shout. He looked over and saw the villagers. They had cloths pressed to their mouths against the gases.
"We saw you two up here," the leader of the villagers said through his mask. "We've been watching for a while now. We saw you not moving and feared the worst. You two, you're wizards, right? Were you the ones who stopped the volcano? How? That's impossible. That hasn't been done since legendary times, when the Dragon King stopped the mountain."
Natsu stood, although he still felt woozy and had to hold onto the rocky wall of the cave's entrance. "My name is Natsu Dragneel, son of Igneel, the Flame Dragon King."
A woman stepped forward. "Does that make you king of the mountain?"
Natsu shook his head. "I could never replace Igneel." Then his chest puffed out in haughtiness. "But I supposed you could consider me as a prince."
The village leader looked confused. "Prince … Natsu?"
Gray grabbed Natsu's hand and dragged him along. "Obviously the fumes are getting to his head. He's no prince. He's just a flame-brain."
"Hey!" Natsu shouted. "My dad's the Flame Dragon King, so I am a prince."
Gray still ignored him. "We could use a place to stay the night. The cave is filled with poisonous gas now, and we've both used up nearly all of our magic. I can feel the deprivation already hitting me."
"Of course!" the village leader said, beaming with honor. "You'll be placed in the nicest room in our inn, and you can eat all the food you—"
"Don't!" Gray warned, cutting him off. "Don't even think about making that offer. He'll take it as a challenge. A meal and a bed. A ride out of town after we've recovered would be nice as well."
"Consider it done!"
They slept for most of three days. Although the village gave them a room with two beds, they used only one, and Gray cuddled Natsu almost the entire time, even during the moments when he woke up long enough to eat some soup. He knew he was being clingy, but he still kept thinking about how close he came to losing his boyfriend.
The poison had foul effects on both of them, and a magic healer arrived from a village on the other side of the volcano. She healed their lungs, although Natsu's were far worse and took the healer two days of magic healing to repair.
After a week of resting, they both felt strong enough to make the climb back up the mountain to get their things. Gray saw that his ice wall still held back the melted snow, a bluish ring of water around the volcano that now had no snow on the top. It was an odd sight, definitely.
They arrived at the cave, packed their supplies, and moved everything outside. However, Gray saw that Natsu was reluctant to go. This had been his home for so many years, and in it were many memories.
Gray put a hand on the Dragon Slayer's arm. "I'll be outside. I need to check the Bulwark anyway before we go. Take your time."
Natsu nodded in thanks. He walked around the many rooms. He went to his old bedroom. He walked to the room with the bathing lake. He even walked down to the heart of the volcano to make sure the magma level was low. Then he came back up, standing in the main entrance, and just looked around.
"Well, Igneel … thanks for keeping this place safe. It was good to come home again, but I have a new home now. I live with Happy, and sometimes with Gray. Fairy Tail is my home, but this … this will always be my home with you."
He stepped out, put his hand by the door, and closed his eyes as a magic circle glowed from his hand. Igneel had taught him the unique magic that sealed the entrance. With it, the volcano was certain to be sealed as well, protecting the villagers below.
Gray returned up the path and saw Natsu standing by the entrance. "Did you lock it up?"
"Yeah," he said with a heavy sigh. "Only the magic of a fire dragon can open the door."
Gray wrapped an arm around him. "We can always come back. Maybe next time we'll bring Happy."
Natsu grinned at the idea. "I'd like that. One day, I want to make a memorial to Igneel. I have no idea what, though."
Gray pointed to the top of the mountain. "Will that work for now?"
Natsu backed up a few steps to see what he meant. At the summit of the volcano, Gray had taken all the melted snow and created a massive ice sculpture of Igneel's head. Natsu stared in awe that Gray would do that.
"That's … incredible. It's huge," he exclaimed.
"It was a lot of water that needed to go somewhere. I figured, this way it really is the Dragon King's Mountain."
However, Natsu pouted and folded his arms stubbornly. "It just looks wrong having the Flame Dragon King carved in ice."
Gray whacked him on the back of the head. "Hey, I worked hard on that statue."
Natsu laughed with a grin up at him. "It's awesome. It's gonna last for years."
"Damn right, it will!"
They left together down the mountain with their gear on their backs. The same old farmer who took them to the mountain was waiting with his cart to take them to the nearest train station as thanks.
"Whoa," Natsu claimed, running up to the cart. "It's filled with food!"
The old man gave them a toothless smile. "A thanks from us farmers. You saved our lands. It's the least we can do."
Natsu laughed in excitement, prepared to eat, but as soon as the cart began to move, his stomach surged up on him. Gray laughed at him. This flame-idiot!
"More powerful than a volcano, and yet an old farmer's cart can defeat you so easily."
Natsu tried to glare up with watery eyes and a green face. "Sh-Shut up," he muttered, before a burp of acid shot up. He groaned in misery, and Gray rubbed his back, shaking his head at his silly, crazy, incredible boyfriend.
End of Chapter 57
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ... which apparently I can't talk about here. (Hello, Admin Police.)
Spoiler: I published a novel. I am apparently NOT allowed to advertise it, so I won't. If you're curious, you can find more information on my website, http://shadowstrider.net. I think you'll be pleasantly surprise, and not just because I'm finally revealing my REAL NAME. (Seriously, I've hidden my real name from the fanfic community for years.)
How hot are Natsu's flames? The boiling point of quartz is 2590°C (yay for high school chemistry!) So, think about that range. Pretty … damn … hot.
Ice-Make: Siebe - I imagine what Gray made was similar to scuba gear, so I named it after the man who invented the modern standard diving dress. If you think of those old copper diving helmets, it's probably Siebe's design that pops into your head. Cool fact: not only did Augustus Siebe design modern diving gear, he inventing the ice-making machine. It's totally appropriate for Gray to use his name as one of his spells.
Ice Devil's Bulwark - I wanted a cool Ice Devil spell for Gray. Although I had Ice-Make: Rampart as a general "something like this," in order to stop avalanches around the entire mountain, it needed to be far grander, insanely powerful, so Ice Devil magic worked best. I picked the name Bulwark, which is a synonym of rampart, although bulwarks are bulkier and more sturdy.
The size of the bulwark Gray needed to make is based on a volcano near me, Mount Hood. Timberline Trail circles the mountain right at the treeline, and I figured that was where Gray stations himself. The trail is 40 miles (65 km). Using a massive wall instead of racing around the mountain freezing the melting snow made more sense. After all, Timberline Trail typically takes five days to hike. I doubt Gray could make a run like that over rugged ground in just a few hours.
When volcanoes erupt, what's more deadly than the lava are the poisonous gases. Typically, those would kill you long before you have a chance to burn up in the lava. These gases include sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and tetrafluorosilane. I can see five volcanoes from where I live: Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Tabor (it's extinct, we play basketball in the caldera), Mount Adams on a really clear day, and if you're up high enough, you can barely make out Mount Rainier. (Kind of scary, if you stop and think about it.) One dangerous thing about volcanoes, even when they're silent, there are fumaroles, venting openings that release toxic gases. Hikers who come across a fumarole at the time the gases are escaping have suffocated and died. This is why Gray needs to shield himself, and why Natsu's lungs can't completely deal with the toxic gases. Maybe he can handle fire, but not hydrochloric acid or other poisons.
(Yes, I did a crapload of research for this chapter.)
Audio Drama: http://chirb.it/krdkAz
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