"Yeah, don't worry, he has his ways to escape unscathed. The mineral guy was taken away by his companions, so he is alive too," Erza answered him with a calm smile.
"Oh, that's a relief."
"Generally, I would have called you foolish to care about your enemies, but I guess I can't judge that without knowing the full story. After all, Diamond Kingdom is just too messed up," Erza said with a sigh.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Anyway, I'm really surprised that you managed to take out that guy." Erza was more curious about the battle that had happened.
"We were able to win thanks to Mimosa!" Asta was the first one to talk about it.
"It was a combined effort, we wouldn't have been able to win without everyone's contribution," Mimosa humbly said.
"Without your recovery magic, we would have been in a tough spot," Noelle said while patting the Vermillion's shoulders.
"Though it was not an honorable way to fight, it was certainly effective," Klaus agreed with them.
"What do you mean?" Erza asked Klaus.
Klaus explained the strategy they were using.
"So... you guys wore the guy down. Whenever a person gets seriously injured, others cover him while he gets healed. It's quite a basic strategy used with healers generally, though with that high mana pool, it must have been quite the nightmare for your opponent," Erza deadpanned as she felt bad for Mars.
"I guess."
They talked a bit about some of the unusual things about the battle, like how Mars was able to use Fire Magic.
"Mimosa, are you alright?" Noelle asked with a concerned expression as she saw Mimosa having a red face for some reason while steam was coming out of her ears.
"Y-yeah, I am fine. Just tired."
Noelle just had a puzzled face while looking at her.
"Anyway, who was the person who used the last spell? I sensed a very large amount of mana being used in that spell," Erza excitedly asked.
Everyone looked at Yuno; the latter just shrugged.
He told her what he had said to Klaus earlier.
"That's quite interesting, though I don't know if it was real or if you were daydreaming." Erza had no answers to the bizarre phenomena experienced by Yuno.
The clearing became silent, with only the faint noise of their breathing filling the space.
Erza noticed their clothes.
"You guys got roughed up quite badly, especially you, mister. Though nice muscles there, I've only seen one person with a better body than yours—your captain Yami," Erza tried to tease Asta.
"Thanks, I guess? Captain Yami does have nice muscles," Asta said normally.
"Bakasta! Do you have no shame!?" Asta was hit by a water ball from a flustered Noelle.
'No way! Dense people do exist after all.' Erza watched their interaction with amusement.
"Let's fight. You seem to be pretty strong," Luck said while bouncing on his toes.
"Oh, I know you! Luck the Cheery Berserker. You have quite the reputation, though the feeling is not mutual. You're not really strong enough for me to enjoy the fight."
Erza shrugged, instantly seeing quite a number of openings she could capitalize on despite Luck being in combat-ready position.
"We won't know before we try, no?" Luck said with a gleeful smile.
"I would be in trouble if I get caught bullying you, but I guess it's fine if I don't get caught, right?" Erza said with a grin.
She took out a gun while aiming it at Luck.
"Uhm, I don't think that is a good idea," Mimosa said while creating distance from both of them.
Others also subconsciously did that.
Luck looked at Erza, trying to find an opening to exploit.
"Did I interrupt something?" Erza was startled at the familiar voice coming from behind her.
"Uhh, you're already back?" Erza said while shoving the gun back to the spot where she took it out from.
"Yeah, I'm back. We're technically done with the mission, as Mars is probably out of Clover Kingdom," Akeru said with a shrug while waving at the familiar faces.
"It's been a while. How's it going?"
"Since when did you join Black Bulls?" Noelle asked, shocked.
"It's been so long since we last met, and the first thing you ask me is this, not how I was? I'm hurt," Akeru said with a sad expression while clutching his heart.
Noelle just rolled her eyes at that.
"If you still can act like that, I bet you've been fine."
"Well, I joined before you. I've been on a secret mission for a little over 2 months."
"Oh, is he the mystery member that Magna-senpai was talking about?" Asta's eyes widened as if he had a big realization.
"Yeah," Luck confirmed his guess while his eyes were focused on Akeru's chest for some reason.
"It has been a while. I've been good. What about you?" Mimosa replied to his greeting with a smile.
"I've been good, just tired."
"We'll definitely catch up later when you're not tired. Let's leave."
Akeru was puzzled at Mimosa's reply.
'Why do I have a bad feeling about this? Or is it just my imagination?' Akeru thought while looking at Mimosa's smile, which was looking eerie to him.
"By the way, what were you doing down there?" Klaus asked.
"I was looting the treasure room. Can't leave the extra credits now, can we?" Akeru said while patting the small pouch tied to his waist.
Some of them were speechless at this.
Was Akeru looting while they were escaping for their lives?
"Let's go, I need to sleep." Akeru told the others to start moving, and they finally complied.
He was at the tail of the group.
Erza was at the front.
"So, can you create guns with your magic?" Klaus asked, having seen it when she had taken it out against Luck.
It was quite similar to his magic in the creation aspect, so he was curious.
"Yeah, I could create guns, bullets—anything related to guns." Erza nodded while giving away the superficial knowledge about her magic.
She didn't really mind giving out information which could be easily found if a person spent effort on finding it.
Klaus told her about his magic and how they were similar in some aspects.
They talked a bit about it, and Klaus was happy that he got some recommendations to improve his magic.
While this happened, Mimosa was talking to Noelle about something, and Luck was distracted by Asta, so none of them had their attention on Akeru, who was at the back of their group.
THUD
Suddenly, the sound of something falling on the ground could be heard.
Mimosa, who was second-last from behind in the group, was the first one to react and turned back.
"W-what th-the fuck?" Mimosa's eyes widened in horror.
This prompted everyone else to look back.
"Eeeepppp!" Noelle yelled as she looked at the unholy amount of blood dyeing the ground.
"B-boss?" Erza, who had instinctively taken out her gun, dropped it on seeing the sight in front of her.
The person who had an almost "invincible" persona in her mind was lying on the ground with lifeless eyes, one of his arms detached from his body, blood flowing from it, which dyed the ground crimson.
***
End of Volume 2: Being A Stage 0 Doesn't Make You Invincible
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A/N - And we are finally done with Volume 2!
I wasn't really expecting it to go on for 50 chapters, but it is what it is.
I am pretty sure that many people would have been disappointed with this fic for this volume, especially in the second half as the interaction in this volume was OC focused, which none of you saw coming before.
Well, there were two reasons for this: one was that I was trying some writing styles and the other was that these OCs would be important later in the story, and I think I have developed some of them nicely, at least in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I wasn't really expecting this Volume to have so many fights, and I am kind of annoyed by writing too many fights—especially at the end of this Volume, so I'm going to tone down on that in the early part of Volume 3 I guess, at least for Akeru's fights.
There would be a lot—I mean A LOT of character interactions with the canon characters, especially with Black Bulls in Volume 3 along with canon moving forward too.
Also, as you could see, I had fleshed out Diamond Kingdom quite nicely, at least tried to. What do you think about it?
I am thinking of doing the same for Clover Kingdom (at least give you guys a map).
Also, if you have any suggestions or complaints so far, do let me know. I will consider them.
***
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