"Run for your lives!"
Seeing the large group of mages behind Lyon flooding into the village, Chief Moka and the villagers immediately hid in terror. Although they were demons, they were not like the terrifying and evil Deliora.
They only possessed a sliver of demonic blood; while their appearance differed from normal humans, in reality, there wasn't much of a difference. Furthermore, they could transform into ordinary humans to live their lives during the day.
As for their combat power, they were only slightly stronger than an average human and couldn't compare to mages who fought with magic. Naturally, they couldn't help and could only hide to avoid dragging down the Fairy Tail mages.
A large number of mages wearing uniform attire surrounded Goku and the others to prevent them from escaping. Among them, three individuals who were not in uniform and stood behind Lyon—clearly possessing strength far beyond the average mage—took the initiative to attack.
"Submit to our great Cold Emperor!"
A female mage with pink twin-tails giggled, covering her mouth as she activated her magic.
"Puppet Magic: Rock Giant!"
A pink magic circle formed at her feet, and a massive rock giant, over ten meters tall, crawled out from the array. It reached out with a colossal stone palm, lunging toward Gray and the others.
"I've got this! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Facing the giant's grasp, Natsu's hands erupted in flames as he fearlessly met the attack. He intended to shatter the rock giant into pieces with a single punch. However, just as he leaped into the air, a figure suddenly appeared behind him and swiped at him: "Paralysis Magic: Poison Claw—Hundred-Fold Poison Jellyfish!"
The claw strike didn't cause physical harm to Natsu's body, but his frame suddenly stiffened, and he crashed down from mid-air.
"Natsu!"
Seeing this, Happy immediately spread his wings and flew over, catching the falling Natsu.
"My body is paralyzed... I can't move."
"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! Taurus!"
Lucy pulled out a Golden Celestial Key and chanted the incantation. A blue magic circle rose from the key, and a muscular minotaur nearly three meters tall, carrying a giant axe, leaped out from the array. This was the strongest close-combat fighter among her Golden Spirits.
"Go, Taurus!"
The Taurus Spirit pulled the giant axe from his back and shattered the reaching stone hand with a single blow. However, before he could swing again to split the entire giant apart, his body suddenly stiffened. He turned around and swung his axe directly at Lucy.
Terrified, Lucy performed a desperate dive, narrowly dodging the blade.
"Taurus, what are you doing?!"
"Miss Lucy, my body is moving on its own!"
The pink-haired girl giggled triumphantly. "My Puppet Magic can control non-human creatures and objects—including Celestial Spirits!"
"Ice-Make: Lance!"
Gray slammed his right fist into his left palm. An ice-blue magic circle appeared before him, and a dense barrage of ice spears shot toward Taurus. If a Celestial Spirit was injured to a certain extent, they would automatically return to the Celestial Spirit World to recover. He only needed to heavily wound Taurus to force him back and end the threat to Lucy.
"Vibration Magic: Shield!"
However, a blue-haired mage appeared in front of Gray. With a wave of his hand, the ice spears completely vanished.
"Your opponent is me, Yuka of the Vibrations—the bane of mages. Any magic is useless before me!"
"Vibration Magic?"
Gray raised an eyebrow but wasn't intimidated. "Bane of mages" and "nullifying any magic" were claims he didn't believe for a second. He wasn't a mindless brawler like Natsu; having studied under the famous Ur, his magical theory was quite sound.
The opponent's magic indeed had the trait of nullifying other spells, but it wasn't that miraculous. It simply used high-frequency vibrations to disrupt the structure of the magic, causing it to dissipate.
As long as the magic was powerful enough that the vibrations couldn't destroy it in time, it would still work. Alternatively, if the magic was fast enough to strike the caster before the vibrations began, that would work too. And for a Requip mage like Erza, it went without saying—a physical sword strike would simply cut the opponent in half. You can vibrate magic away, but you can't vibrate away a solid greatsword.
Therefore, the enemy before him wasn't particularly difficult to handle. Of course, defeating him might take some effort, meaning he couldn't immediately back up Lucy. However, there wasn't a trace of worry on his face.
This was because there was still one person in their team who hadn't made a move—the person most easily overlooked, yet the strongest mage among them. That was the harmless-looking, child-like Goku. His true strength was that of a terrifying mage who could defeat the Titania and destroy the moon.
Sure enough, just as Taurus's axe was about to strike Lucy, it was easily caught by two fingers. It was Goku, arriving just in time to save her.
"Sleepy Boy Palm!"
Forcibly seizing the giant axe from Taurus with just two fingers, Goku reached out and pressed a palm against Taurus's abdomen. Controlled by the Puppet Magic, Taurus's eyes immediately rolled back, and he fell into a deep sleep.
Taurus was Lucy's spirit and was merely being controlled, so Goku didn't want to actually hurt him. He used a non-injurious Sleepy Boy technique to make him nap instead. When using fists to knock someone out, it's easy to kill them if the force isn't controlled perfectly.
But with moves like the Rock-Symmetry Punch or Sleepy Boy Palm, there was no such worry. A light touch—or even a magical hit without physical contact—could produce the effect. Against weak enemies, these moves were more useful than Breath styles or the Kamehameha.
"Return, Taurus!"
Seeing Taurus restrained, Lucy quickly used her magic to send him back to the Celestial Spirit World, but she didn't dare summon another spirit. Anyone else would just be controlled by that Puppet Magic again.
"Oh? The little guy is pretty good. Then accept my 'whipping of love'!"
Seeing the boy she previously ignored possessed decent strength, the twin-tailed mage showed a look of surprise. She commanded the massive rock giant to smash a fist down toward Goku and Lucy.
Facing this terrifying strike, Goku didn't show the slightest fear. To him, this punch... was too weak!
"Ha!"
With a simple horse stance and a straight punch, Goku's tiny fist met the giant rock knuckle. Terrifying power erupted instantly. Numerous cracks appeared on the rock giant's fist and rapidly spread across its entire body.
*Boom!*
The ten-meter-tall rock giant turned into a cloud of dust and fell to the ground.
"How is that pos—"
The twin-tailed mage's eyes filled with horror, but before she could finish her sentence, she saw the boy who had pulverized her giant appear before her eyes.
He landed a punch on her stomach. Just as she terrifiedly expected to explode like the rock giant, she felt no pain—only that her body had become rigid and unable to move.
"What a terrifying boy!"